NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A man who witnesses say was watched via webcam while kissing a Rutgers University student who later committed suicide told jurors yesterday that he noticed the camera pointed in their direction while the two were being intimate.
“I had just glanced over my shoulder and I noticed there was a webcam that was faced toward the direction of the bed,’’ the man, identified only by the initials M.B., said in court, later noting that no there was no light indicating it was on. “Just being in a compromising position and seeing a camera lens - it just stuck out to me.’’
The man testified that he had met Rutgers student Tyler Clementi in August 2010 through a social networking site for gay men, and said he texted repeatedly after their third and final rendezvous.
He wanted to see him again, though he didn’t know his last name at the time.
“I didn’t know it until I picked up a newspaper,’’ he said.
Clementi’s name was not in the newspaper until about a week later, when it was reported that he had jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
They chatted online initially, he said, and their first in-person meeting was in Clementi’s dorm room on Sept. 17 - two days before the alleged spying.
The man’s testimony came in the trial of Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, who has been charged with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and other crimes.
The judge did not allow photographs of M.B. to be taken in the courthouse, barred any audio or video of him to be recorded, and said he would be identified in court only by his initials.
The man’s lawyer had successfully fought to conceal his identity because he is considered a victim of an alleged sex crime.
Invasion of privacy is classified as a sex crime in New Jersey.
Jurors were given his whole name to make sure none knew him.
Yesterday, the trim young man appeared in court, and did not match the description of the overweight “sketchy’’ or “homeless’’ looking man that students had reported seeing visit Clementi.
His hair was closely cropped and he didn’t have the goatee that some described seeing him have.
Because of the secrecy surrounding the man’s identity, there was an unusually large media contingent packed into the Middlesex County Courthouse for what was already a high-profile trial.
After a full day’s testimony - most of it during crossexamination by a defense layer - many mysteries remained.
The man said he was 32 years old. He disclosed little else on his own.
In an apparent oversight, jurors were shown a picture of Clementi’s cellphone, which revealed the name he entered for him: Mike Nice.
His lawyer, Richard Pompelio of the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Law Center, said he doesn’t believe he is married and did not know whether he was out as a gay man.
“He’s a fine young man who came here under horrible circumstances to tell the truth,’’ Pompelio said outside the courtroom during a break in testimony.
He said M.B. had a fledgling relationship with Clementi and learned about his death from hearing it on the radio.
In court, M.B. said he lived about a 20-minute drive from Clementi’s dorm and was starting a job on Sept. 20, 2010.
He testified that he met Clementi in his dorm room three times.
The first was on Sept. 17, when he said Ravi was not expected home until the middle of the night.
He said he was careful to leave before Ravi was due back.
“I made sure to leave well before 2 a.m. as to not cause any conflict,’’ he said.
The second was Sept. 19, the date of the alleged spying - and the time he said he noticed the webcam.
The man told jurors there were about five students looking at him as he left the building on Sept. 19.
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"Former defendant emotional on stand in New Jersey webcam trial" associated press, February 29, 2012
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - When she met with police, Molly Wei realized that briefly viewing a live Web stream of a dorm mate kissing another man was a serious problem, the former Rutgers University student testified yesterday in the trial of a classmate.
By the time her meeting with investigators was over, she was so rattled that she had her parents take her to their family home in Princeton Junction, a half-hour away.
“At the end of the conversation, the police officers told me that Tyler was missing and that he had possibly committed suicide,’’ she said, showing emotion that she had not when she testified Monday. “I was overwhelmed, very sad, and I felt very bad if anything had happened.’’
Ravi, 20, faces 15 criminal counts, including bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and several counts that accuse him of trying to cover his tracks. He is not charged in Clementi’s death. Wei was initially charged, too, but she entered a pretrial intervention program last year that can keep her record clean.
One condition of the program is truthful testimony in Ravi’s criminal case.
She said she called Rutgers police a few days later after learning about a Twitter message Ravi posted on Sept. 21, when Clementi requested privacy in the room again. “Anyone with iChat,’’ he posted, “I dare you to videochat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it’s happening again.’’
By the time she learned about that, days later, she said, “I knew that what happened was more serious than I thought.’’
That time, when she went into the police station, she was charged with invasion of privacy. She said she left Rutgers that night and never returned as a student.
Ravi’s Sept. 21 tweet was a major topic yesterday during the trial’s third day of testimony.
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Related: New Jersey Campuses
