LIVE VIDEO — Testimony resumes in the trial of a former Rutgers student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man.
By The Associated Press
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- A former Rutgers student who was charged with invasion of privacy for using a webcam to spy on another student testified Tuesday that the paperwork got it wrong when she was arrested.
Molly Wei told jurors that while she viewed live images of a student's intimate dormroom encounter with another man, she neither recorded nor broadcasted that video.
Wei was on the stand for the second day in the bias intimidation and invasion of privacy trial of former student Dharun Ravi.
Ravi's roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days after the alleged spying in September 2010.
John O'Boyle / The Star-Ledger via AP
Molly Wei testifies on Monday in a New Brunswick, N.J., courtroom.
Wei entered a program to keep her record clean if she complies with a list of conditions, including truthful testimony.
Ravi faces 15 criminal charges including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation.
On Monday, Wei said she and Ravi watched the streaming images from his computer after Clementi asked to have the dorm room to himself so he could have company.
"First of all, it was shocking. It felt wrong. We didn't expect to see that. And now that what we did, it was like we shouldn't have seen it," Wei said in testimony Monday. "We didn't want people to know what had happened."
But, Wei testified, within minutes, she and Ravi were online chatting with friends about seeing two men kissing. And within the hour, Wei said, she agreed to show a few seconds of the video stream to four other women who visited her dorm room. Still, she said, Ravi didn't seem to intend to humiliate or intimidate Clementi.
That could be a key issue because to convict Ravi of bias intimidation, a hate crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors will have to convince the jury that Ravi acted out of bias toward gays.
Both times she saw the stream, Wei said, Clementi and another man were standing in front of Clementi's desk kissing. And both times, she said, she saw only seconds.
"It was the exact same image except that they had taken their tops off," she said of the second viewing, which she said was at the request of one of several other students who visited her room. "As soon as they saw it, I turned it off."
On cross-examination from Ravi's lawyer, she said that there was no plan to humiliate or intimidate Clementi.
Also expected to testify on Tuesday is the student resident assistant whom Clementi told about the alleged spying.
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