Lawyers Defend Students Accused of Filming Tyler Clementi

(Oct. 6) -- Lawyers for the two Rutgers University freshmen accused of secretly filming a classmate who later killed himself say hate crime charges are not justified and that many unfair assumptions have been made about their clients.

Eighteen-year-olds Dharun Ravi of Plainsboro, N.J., and Molly Wei of Princeton, N.J., are accused of invading Tyler Clementi's privacy by secretly filming his sexual encounter with another man and streaming the footage online. They could face five years in prison if convicted.

Clementi, 18, from Ridgewood, N.J., threw himself from the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22. A day earlier, he had posted a message online saying how upset he was over the spying.

Prosecutors are considering whether to press hate crime charges against Wei and Ravi, who was Clementi's roommate.

Attorney William Fisher, who is representing Wei, said he did not expect her to be convicted.

"This tragedy has also unfairly led to rampant speculation and misinformation, which threaten to overwhelm the actual facts of the matter," Fisher said, according to ABC News.

"Molly committed no crime. Her remarkable reputation is being unjustly tarnished by uninformed and incorrect assumptions."

Steven Altman, the attorney for Ravi, said he was "confident" that hate crimes charges will not be an issue.

"Out of respect to Tyler Clementi's family, this is not the time for explanations of defenses or justifications to be made public by an attorney," Altman said, according to People magazine.

"I am confident that nothing will be learned to justify, warrant or support the filing of any bias criminal complaint."

Ravi appears to have been disturbed to discover that his roommate was gay. He tweeted about it and posted a link to a website where he said Clementi wrote about being homosexual.

On Sept. 19, Ravi apparently tweeted ,"Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

Prosecutors say Ravi streamed the video online and that he unsuccessfully attempted to do the same thing a few days later.

The case has prompted a nationwide outcry against cyberbullying. Advocates say it points to a need to ensure gay and lesbian students are not targeted.

In an editorial published Tuesday, the Rutgers school newspaper, The Daily Targum, attacked coverage of Clementi's death, saying the media manipulated and profited from the coverage.

"Clementi's death should not have been turned into a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender protest for gay rights," the editorial said. "The focal point of Clementi's tragic death should have been a boy's inability to deal with the hardships of life."