The Case of Dharun Ravi: Expert Testimony from an I.T. Specialist

In a case that galvanized concerns about suicide by gay teens, Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi used a webcam to remotely spy on his roommate kissing another man, and sent Twitter and text messages to other dormitory residents, encouraging them to watch when the roommate, Tyler Clementi, invited the man back two nights later. After discovering Ravi's actions, Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, a mere three weeks into his freshman year. Ravi then deleted his text messages.

Former Rutgers University student, Dharun Ravi, was convicted of using a webcam to spy on his roommate.

The controversy that swirled around this case for more than a year focused on whether this was a hate crime or simple boorish and childish behavior on Ravi's part. Eventually he was charged with 15 crimes.

One of the witnesses who testified for the prosecu- tion at Ravi's 2012 trial was Douglas Rager, a former Rutgers University police detective and information technology expert. He established the trail of electronic evidence, including Twitter feeds, cell phone records, dining card swipes, and dormitory surveillance cam- eras, and provided a "net flow" analysis that described how the computers in the dormitory were connected. His testimony must have been useful to jurors, as they convicted Ravi on all 15 counts, including invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, lying to investigators, and tampering with evidence. Adding further controversy to an already-contentious case, the judge sentenced Ravi to a mere 30 days in jail. Said Judge Glenn Ber- man, "I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi. I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity."

CRITICAl THOUGHT QUESTION

Given what you've learned about the ways that jurors use expert testimony, what do you suspect they focused on when discussing Detective Rager's testimony during deliberations?