Defendant won't testify in NJ webcam spying trial

A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man won't take the witness stand in his own defense, his lawyer told the judge as he rested his case.

Prosecutors presented about 20 witnesses over 10 days as they built a case against Dharun Ravi. Defense lawyers called nine lawyers in two days.

The 20-year-old Ravi is charged with 15 criminal counts, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy. Bias intimidation is a hate crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison in New Jersey.

His roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge in September 2010, just days after the intimate encounter. His death brought widespread attention to the difficulties that can be faced by young gays.

Ravi isn't charged in Clementi's death.

Jury deliberations could begin sometime Tuesday. Lawyers' summations are scheduled for 9 a.m.

Lawyers were expected to spend part of Monday afternoon haggling over details of the instructions that will be given to jurors.

Judge Glenn Berman said it's tricky because both invasion of privacy and bias intimidation laws are relatively new and there are some issues that need to be worked out.

Ravi looked composed for an 18-year-old wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops when he was brought into a police station for questioning on Sept. 23, 2010, about his Rutgers University roommate.

Word had spread that Ravi used his webcam to view Clementi in a private moment with another man, just days before Clementi committed suicide.

As he was questioned, Ravi looked directly at the investigator who grilled him and accused him repeatedly of lying. He talked quickly but his voice didn't trail off.

Testimony in the trial entered its 12th day on Monday with Ravi's defense lawyer, Steven Altman, questioning Frank DiNinno, an investigator with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office for the second day.

On Monday, Altman focused on DiNinno's interviews with Lokesh Ojha, one of the key prosecution witnesses. Ojha said in earlier testimony that he helped Ravi get the angle right on his webcam to show Clementi's bed on Sept. 21.

During cross-examination, Altman questioned Ojha about why he didn't volunteer that detail to authorities initially. The lawyer appeared to be looking for inconsistencies in what Ojha told investigators.

On Monday, as throughout the trial, Ravi sat about 20 feet from jurors — wearing a suit, his formerly unkempt hair trimmed neatly — but they have not heard him utter a single word in person.

Between his words during a videotaped police interrogation and those of others, a portrait of him has been painted for jurors.

Born in India, he came to New Jersey with his family as a young child. He and his family live in the upscale central New Jersey community of Plainsboro.

The son of a computer software firm executive, he has designed some software on his own.

The younger Ravi had a custom-made computer that functioned on both Microsoft and Apple Macintosh operating systems. That technical accomplishment — while not unheard of — impressed the detective assigned to examine the machine.

He was gregarious and good enough at calculus that other students came to him for help.

In high school, he ran track and played ultimate Frisbee, then joined the disc team when he got to Rutgers. He was proud when he bought new cleats for the sports, describing them in a text message to a friend as "purple and flashy."

At Rutgers, he planned to major in economics. The university assigned him and Clementi to be roommates at random. They didn't meet before they moved in at the end of August.

When he met with police, he was asked to explain a Twitter post in which he said: "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 pm and 12."

On the video, he said he meant that sarcastically. "When I'm uncomfortable about something," Ravi explained during the interrogation, "I joke about it."

To convict him on the most serious charge — bias intimidation — prosecutors will need to convince the jury that he acted out of animus against gays. He faces up to 10 years of prison if he's convicted of bias intimidation, which is considered a hate crime in New Jersey. Most people convicted of the other charges he faces don't get jail time.

As prosecutors called college students to testify, defense lawyers asked them all a variation of the same question: Did he ever say anything bad about gays? In each case, the answer was "no."

But there was a bit more to it than that. Some students said Ravi told them he was "uncomfortable" having a gay roommate.

The defense began presenting its side of the case on Friday by calling seven men to testify. All of them are friends — and most current or former business associates — of Ravi's father.

Defense lawyer Philip Nettl asked each of them if Ravi ever said anything derogatory about gay individuals or gays in general.

In each case, the men said no.

Then, First Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Julia McClure began questioning them.

All said they had never seen his Twitter posts, and exchanged texts or instant messages with him. And each of them said homosexuality was never discussed in their conversations.

"Why would that come up?" asked one of the men, Anil Kappa, a business partner of Ravi's father.