M.B. Wants Prison For Ravi In Rutgers Webcam Case
WHIPPANY, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The man who had intimate encounters with Rutgers student Tyler Clementi wants the former student convicted in the webcam spying case to go to prison.
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The man, known only as M.B., will draft an impact statement that his lawyer plans to read when Dharun Ravi is sentenced on May 21.
His lawyer, Richard Pompelio, tells The Record newspaper his client believes Ravi deserves to be sentenced to jail because that's what the law provides.
Ravi was found guilty of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation as a hate crime for using a webcam in September 2010 to spy on Clementi and M.B. having an intimate encounter and faces up to 10 years behind bars.
Pompelio says his 32-year-old client doesn't hold any malice toward Ravi. But the lawyer believes his client has learned there was a degree of "meanness'' in what happened.
Clementi's family, meanwhile, issued a statement Friday saying they believe the jury "reached the correct verdict" and that "the defense's explanation of what happened was simply not believable."
"I have said all along that we were looking for justice and accountability," Clementi's father, Joseph Clementi said in the statement. "I trusted the courts and the State of New Jersey to get this right...and they did."
In a newspaper interview earlier this week, Ravi said that he "didn't act out of hate" and "wasn't uncomfortable with Tyler being gay."
He explained he was just leery of a stranger in his dorm room, saying "I thought it was something sinister, that maybe he got mixed up with the wrong guy."
The Clementis say there are lessons to be learned from the death of their son. "We have become all too aware of the consequences suffered by people who are singles out for being different," said Clementi's mother, Jane Clementi in the statement. "In this digital world, we need to teach our youngsters that their actions have consequences, that their words have real power to hurt or to help. They must be encouraged to choose to build people up and not tear them down."
The Tyler Clementi Foundation was launched earlier this year to promote responsible use of electronic media. For more information, visit www.thetylerclementifoundation.com.
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