Lawyers: Student charged in Rutgers case innocent: She has a bright future

[WillParkinson]

Lawyers: Student charged in Rutgers case innocent


(Newark, NJ) Attorneys for a Rutgers University student accused of broadcasting live images of a freshman in a gay sexual encounter say their client is innocent.

Attorneys for Molly Wei, of West Windsor, N.J., said Tuesday in a statement that she is “a wonderful, caring and talented young woman with a bright future.” They say she has been maligned by unfounded attacks on her character.

Prosecutors have charged Wei and fellow Rutgers freshman Dharun Ravi, of Plainsboro, with invasion of privacy for allegedly using a webcam to broadcast an intimate encounter between Ravi’s roommate and another man.

The roommate, 18-year-old freshman Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death into the Hudson River from the George Washington Bridge three days later.

http://www.365gay.com/news/lawyers-student-charged-in-rutgers-case-innocent/#coms
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A bright future. I'm sure Mr. Clementi did as well.

(Edited to add the link to the story I read.)

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Why do they get to try this in the press?

[Hepburn]

10. Influence the jury pool.

They figure this is going to trial.

JMHO

[FiveGoodMen]

11. I know that's why they're doing it.

I want to know why they get the free PR and everyone seems to think it's okay.

[Hepburn]

16. The media is reporting it...

...remember...those two defendants are "nice" kids and the victim was gay. It is gonna sell to someone who will give it a voice.

[RKP5637]

2. Well, I guess since the lawyers say that it must be all OK now and time for

us all to move along. Just another dead gay, of no concern. Just an innocent student prank.

I find this crap so utterly annoying. Often I think so many in this country are so F'ed up their sense of reality is beyond comprehension.

[xchrom]

3. That's a lot of motherfuckin nerve.

And the now dead young man?

[MadMaddie]

4. Not our problem

She broke the law and will be prosecuted. The young man that she taunted had a bright future too and this piece of shit didn't think much about his future. If she was so caring why didn't she think twice about putting this video out into the internet world?

<snip>
Attorneys for Molly Wei, of West Windsor, N.J., said Tuesday in a statement that she is “a wonderful, caring and talented young woman with a bright future.” They say she has been maligned by unfounded attacks on her character.
<snip>

To answer your question because this is the way America functions now(I don't agree with it) but that's what it is.

[RKP5637]

6. "this is the way America functions now ..." And it's really become a sick

F'en place in many ways. Home of freedom, equality and equal opportunity. I have to laugh each time I year that motherhood and apple pie crap. True, other places are far far worse, but that does not excuse the erosion of this country.

[MadMaddie]

13. I totally agree with you. I honestly believe that it is rooted

in 30 years of conservatism and religion. There is very little civility, basic manners such as thank you and excuse me are rarely used. It's those basic civil rules that allow a society to move forward and grow, what we have now is an enviroment waiting to explode.

[RKP5637]

15. And just listening to how people start sentences with "ME." It's very seldom

I hear anyone start a sentence with another person's name first, rather it is always ME ME ME. The ME generation. I agree too, it's "rooted in 30 years of conservatism and religion." And additionally IMO capitalism gone a muck. Anything goes to get ahead, cheating, lying, just about anything. Clearly an environment waiting to explode and I have no idea where it's taking us when it does, but I fear it's probably not for the better.

[habitual]

5. in case anyone else was looking for a link:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i1iMYHMsNbOUJOaBvP10z2VkrP_AD9ILNH5G0?docId=D9ILNH5G0

there is no more to the story there tho..... what is quoted is the extent of it.

[WillParkinson]

7. Thank you Habitual...

I was so peeved by the article I never finished the post.

[ThomCat]

8. If she is so wonderful and caring, why was she invading someone's

privacy, outing him, and broadcasting his sex life on the internet to deliberately humiliate him? That doesn't sound like "wonderful" or "caring" to me! :grr:

It sounds like she's "wonderful" to some people and horrible to others. And it sounds like she "caring" about herself, especially now that her vicious streak got her into trouble with the law and it looks like she'll end up in jail. x(

She deserves every bit as much compassion as she showed Tyler Clementi.

At any time she could have stopped everything and said, "you know, spying on someone really isn't cool." She could have said, "outing someone is a really mean thing to do and it's wrong." She could have said "sex should be a private thing unless they want to tape it themselves." But she didn't say any of those things, did she? She didn't have any compassion or consideration for what Tyler or his partner felt. NONE!

But now she wants everyone to have compassion for her.

Well FUCK THAT! :grr:

[habitual]

9. i don't even consider myself a "wonderful, caring" person

but i would have for damn sure stopped any assholes i was around if they were trying to do this....

so please spare me the "wonderful, caring" bullshit.... she could have protested, or at the very least, left in disgust.

[customerserviceguy]

12. I've always thought the case against her might be weak

For all we know, he might have simply gone into her room, flipped on her computer, tuned into his webcams, and said, "Look at this!"

Yes, she had a moral obligation to tell him to shut it off, and even to inform dorm authorities, but peer pressure not to rat someone out is very strong.

She's nowhere near as culpable as her co-defendant, perhaps she will flip him for some sort of probation sentence, especially if no one can prove that she did anything other than passively observe some making out.

[MadMaddie]

14. Or they can prove she actively participated pushing the

filming to the web. She is an accomplice and that doesn't make her less guilty.

[customerserviceguy]

18. On that, it will come down to his word against hers

And right now, he's not looking very credible.

By the way, have your friends ever done something stupid, even somewhat criminal in your presence? Did you always run off and tell a grown-up? Only if there is some sort of independent evidence on somebody's computer will the charge of 'accomplice' stick.

[WillParkinson]

19. Did you ever run off and tell a grown-up?

These are (allegedly) adults. They should know the difference between right and wrong.

Believe me, I do understand what you're saying, but a lot will hinge on whether they can prove she was an active participant in this scheme as well as finding out if she was going to be in on the 2nd attempt.

[customerserviceguy]

23. Yes, they are supposedly adults

But college is that period where society seems to encourage extended adolescence, for some strange reason. Also, the media teaches these young people that it's fun to 'punk' someone.

Besides, if I was her lawyer, I'd be selling the story that she had no idea what Ravi had tuned into. Any number of videos from the Internet might have been what he brought up on her screen. If Clementi's face was not clearly visible in them, she might not have even known that it was him. Or, that he had not authorized the video in question.

You have a point about the second attempt, but unless she was in the room while it was going to be streamed out on the Internet, it might be tough to tie her to anything other than viewing the first one. Also, the fact that Clementi thwarted the second attempt might be legally significant. If I'm looking in my neighbor's window (from my own apartment), and she pulls down the shade, am I still technically a peeping Tom?

[MadMaddie]

24. Actually I was one of those kids that didn't get in troublw

I was a shy teen and didn't hang around kids that were cruel.

This act is not a simple prank, they committed a crime by broadcasting a sex act. They are cyber bullies and now a kid is dead.

[customerserviceguy]

25. Well, it's good to know that you didn't pal around

with kids that did stupid stuff, but I did, and my son did, but nobody died over it, or else you might have heard of it.

We also don't know for sure that it was the broadcasting of a sex act, it might have been just "making out" as cit2mo put it. We live in a culture where college kids do stupid pranks all the time, showing your roomie kissing anyone might have been viewed by the perpetrator(s) as simply just another embarassing situation to catch someone in, Allen Funt style.

In any case, it will be very hard to prove that someone did this to get Clementi to jump off of a bridge.

[jumptheshadow]

17. There are several Facebook sites about these two

At one point Molly Wei posted something like this on her Facebook profile:

"Save your words. I didn't film anything!"

Her words are down now, but she's claiming that, while she didn't exhibit good judgment by watching the webcam, she didn't do anything. I think they have a stronger case against the guy who invited people to watch his roommate having sex.

I wish that these two would express sorrow about the young man's death. I'm sure a lawyer somewhere is cautioning them against it.

[Imagevision]

20. Guilty - Guilty - Guilty...next!

[Imagevision]

21. A young woman with a bright future? her past actions clearly speak for her!

[bullwinkle428]

22. It would also be easy to say that Jeff Dahmer had a bright future, before

he decided to start killing and eating people!

Bottom line...your ACTIONS define who you are.

[Divine Discontent]

26. ah yes, the bright future, she/he is a great beloved child that never harmed anyone Act!