Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student, was sentenced on Monday to 30 days in jail for using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s intimate encounter with another man. He was also placed on three years’ probation. In addition, Ravi, 20, was ordered to get counseling and pay $10,000 toward a program to help victims of hate crimes. “Our society has every right to expect zero tolerance for intolerance,” Judge Glenn Berman said on imposing much less than the maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars.
Judge Berman told Ravi that while someone might argue the first spying attempt was a foolish prank, “You cannot make or milk that argument a second time.” Ravi was also reprimanded for deleting scores of text messages and tweets and trying to influence a witness. Berman said Ravi has spent the past 20 months in “exile” since his arrest. Ravi was not charged in Tyler Clementi’s death. Clementi, 18, jumped to his death from New York’s George Washington Bridge days after the online spying occurred in September 2010, and quickly became a symbol of the plight of gay youth in America. Ravi is to report to the Middlesex County Adult Correctional facility on May 31.
