Judge Rules Request For Room Change By Tyler Clementi Following Alleged Spying By Dharun Ravi Will Not Be Allowing Into Evidence

A jury will not be allowed to hear Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's complaint to the school that his roommate used a Webcam to spy on him, a judge ruled today. The complaint was included in Tyler Clementi's request for a dorm room change after he twice caught roommate Dharun Ravi watching him while on a gay date. Clementi listed as his reason for wanting a different dorm rooms as: "Roommate with webcam spying on me/want a single room." Ravi, 19, is accused of using his webcam to spy on Clementi's two gay trysts in the dorm room they shared at Rutgers in September 2010. He is charged with invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering, and hindering arrest. Clementi, 18, killed himself by leaping off the George Washington Bridge days after Ravi twice spied on him. His shocking death became the focal point for a national conversation on cyber-bullying and homophobic bullying among students. ABC News reports that Prosecutor Julie McClure, who has called Ravi's actions "malicious, purposeful, and criminal," claimed today that the online request showed that Clementi knew about the spying and felt intimidated by Ravi. McClure said in the first day of the trial that Ravi targeted Clementi because he was gay. Defense attorneys Steven Altman and Philip Nettl argued against admitting the reason for Clementi's room change request - "Roommate with webcam spying on me" -- into evidence, saying it was hearsay that was unreliable. The statement may or may not have authored by Clementi himself, and was not investigated by the university at the time of the request to be true, Altman argued. The judge ruled that the part of the statement in which Clementi accuses Ravi of spying could not be admitted. The debate over evidence came midway through the morning testimony of witnesses called by the prosecution, including two students who saw or heard about the webcam incident from Ravi. Ravi's friend Scott Xu said that Ravi had never expressed any dislike of gay people, but that he did tell Xu he suspected Clementi was gay. Ravi also told Xu and other friends on their ultimate Frisbee team about Clementi's sexual encounter that Ravi had seen on the webcam, Xu testified. Xu said he never heard Ravi make a disparaging remark about gay people or Clementi's encounter. "The only thing I heard was that (Clementi's male guest) looked 'shady,'" Xu testified. When asked if Ravi had ever described any other gay people, Xu said that his friend had met a gay man at Rutgers orientation. "He did mention one at orientation. He said he liked him because he was rich," Xu said. Another Rutgers student, Pooja Kolluri, testified that she had seen images of Clementi kissing another man on a computer owned by Rave's friend Molly Wei on Tuesday, September 21, two days after the first webcam activation. This time, Wei activated the camera and Ravi was not in the room, Kolluri said. Kolluri testified that several girls watched the image for about five seconds before turning it off. Ravi had entered Wei's room later, she said, and they discussed the incident. "He said he didn't have a problem with (Clementi) being gay," Kolluri testified, noting that Ravi had commented on Clementi's male guest. "(He said) he looked very old."