Rutgers Student Testifies Dharun Ravi Used Her Laptop To Test Webcam Used To Spy On Tyler Clementi; Stresses That Ravi “Absolutely” Did Not Hate Gay Roommate

Two days after watching his roommate kiss another man from a webcam, Dharun Ravi set up his webcam again, this time double checking that it worked and was aimed at his roommate's bed, a Rutgers student testified in Ravi's trial this afternoon. Alissa Agarwal, a dorm mate of Ravi's and his roommate, Tyler Clementi, said she and Ravi ran into each other after dinner on Tuesday, September 21, 2010. Clementi had asked Ravi to use their room again that night, two days after Ravi allegedly activated a webcam in their room and briefly watched Clementi and a male guest kissing from a room across the hall. After dinner, Ravi went to Agarwal's room in Davidson Hall — he wanted to show her a new set of cleats he bought - where they used her laptop to turn on his webcam into the empty room. "Tyler's side of the room came into view," Agarwal said, adding the majority of Clementi's side of the room was his bed. Clementi found out about the alleged spying and pulled the plug on Ravi's computer before his guest came over that night. Ravi is charged with invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, meaning he targeted Clementi because he was gay. The Star-Ledger reports prosecutors say Ravi intentionally wanted to humiliate and expose Clementi because of his sexual orientation. Ravi's lawyer says he acted childish, but is not bigoted. Prosecutors also say that Ravi announced what he had seen on the webcam, and invited others to watch a second time. Agarwal's cell phone was enabled to accept tweets from Ravi automatically, and prosecutors today asked her to read two screenshots of tweets she received from Ravi. The first one, from September 19, said, "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Agarwal said she didn't think much of it. Two days later, she received a tweet that said, "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again." Though both tweets have been referenced throughout two and a half days of testimony, Agarwal was the first to read both tweets to the jury. She said on the walk back to the dorm that Tuesday, Ravi was "encouraging us to abide by his tweet." But on cross-examination, Agarwal said "absolutely not" when asked if Ravi hated his gay roommate, and said he was "not even the slightest bit upset" that Clementi was gay. In fact, she said, Ravi barely spoke of his roommate, and though Agarwal and Ravi were good friends, she couldn't remember if Ravi had even mentioned that Clementi was gay before. Ravi faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the principle charge of bias intimidation. The trial began on Friday and is expected to last two to three weeks. Agarwal’s testimony is to continue.