NEW BRUNSWICK, n.j. — A man who witnesses say was being watched via webcam while kissing a Rutgers University student — who later committed suicide — told jurors Friday that he did notice a camera pointed in their direction in the student’s dorm room.
“I had just glanced over my shoulder, and I noticed there was a webcam that was faced toward the direction of the bed,” the man, identified only by the initials M.B., said in court. He later noted there was no light indicating it was on. “Just being in a compromising position and seeing a camera lens — it just stuck out to me,” he said.
The man testified he had met Rutgers student Tyler Clementi in August 2010 through a social-networking site for gay men and he texted repeatedly after their third and final rendezvous. M.B. wanted to see him again, though he didn’t know his last name at the time.
“I didn’t know it until I picked up a newspaper,” he said.
Clementi’s name wasn’t in the paper until about a week later, when it was reported that he had jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
They chatted online initially, he said, and their first in-person meeting was in Clementi’s dorm room Sept. 17 — two days before the alleged spying.
The testimony came in the trial of Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, who is charged with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and other crimes.
The judge did not allow photographs of M.B. to be taken in the courthouse, barred any audio or video of him to be recorded and said he would be identified in court only by his initials. The man’s attorney had successfully fought to conceal his identity because he is considered a victim of an alleged sex crime. Invasion of privacy is classified as a sex crime in New Jersey.
Jurors, however, were given his full name to make sure none knew him.
The man’s attorney, Richard Pompelio of the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Law Center, said he doesn’t think M.B. is married and did not know whether he was out as a gay man.
“He’s a fine young man who came here under horrible circumstances to tell the truth,” Pompelio said outside the courtroom during a break in testimony.
