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Lawyers For Rutgers Student: "Molly Wei Is Innocent"
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Oct 6, 2010
Modified Oct 6, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Oct 6, 2010
Modified Oct 6, 2010
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Last week, Rutgers freshmen Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei were charged with invasion of privacy after allegedly sharing video of Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, engaged in a sexual encounter with another man. Though community activists have called for hate crime charges against the two, that is looking less likely, and now Molly Wei's lawyers say her reputation has been "unjustly tarnished" by the allegations. They said in a statement, "This is a tragic situation. But this tragedy has also unfairly led to rampant speculation and misinformation, which threaten to overwhelm the actual facts of the matter. Those true facts will reveal that Molly Wei is innocent. Molly committed no crime."
The story goes that on September 19th, Clementi asked Ravi to have their room to himself for the night. Ravi went to hang out with Wei, a friend from high school, and asked to use her computer to "see if anything unusual was taking place inside his room," according to a friend. Ravi allegedly opened his webcam, closed the video feed as soon as he saw what was going on, and then wrote about it on Twitter. He then allegedly wrote two days later, "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it's happening again," suggesting he was planning to intentionally stream footage of Clementi with another man.
It is unclear if anyone other than Ravi and Wei saw the first live video feed. She and Ravi have been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for allegedly watching the first live feed, and Ravi has been charged with two additional counts for allegedly planning to stream the video on a second occasion, suggesting Wei wasn't involved. They also face possible expulsion from Rutgers. Wei's lawyers said, "This classic rush to judgment ignores Molly’s basic right to fairness and presumption of innocence. We can only hope, for everyone’s sake, that the truth will not be forever lost in the process."
Ravi and Wei face up to five years in prison for invasion of privacy, but one NJ lawyer doesn't believe they'll go. He writes, "New Jersey has a presumption against imprisonment for first offenders convicted of third and fourth degree crimes. That means it is almost impossible for them to go to prison. This is why the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office is doing everything they can to tack on the bias charge." Students at Clementi's high school in Ridgewood will gather for an assembly to help cope with their feelings about his suicide. One student told CBS 2,"I just think it’s about time the school addressed it and I think it will definitely address a lot of the problems we have in our school."
Tagged
dharun ravi
invasion of privacy
molly wei
rutgers suicide
suicide
tyler clementi
Jaya Saxena
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