Article from "My Central New Jersey.com"
Two students accused in Tyler Clementi case withdraw from Rutgers
By KEN SERRANO and RICK MALWITZ • STAFF WRITERS • October 28, 2010
"Two Rutgers students charged with invasion of privacy for the alleged use of a webcam to broadcast an intimate encounter between fellow
Freshmen Tyler Clementi and another man days before Clementi's suicide have withdrawn from the university, an attorney for one of the students said.
Steven Altman of New Brunswick, the attorney for Dharun Ravi, Clementi's roommate, said the withdrawals of Ravi of Plainsboro and his co-defendant Molly Wei of Princeton, both 18, mean neither face university disciplinary hearings.
"They were given the option of withdrawing and they can reapply,'' Altman said. "Realistically, they couldn't go back no matter what. He definitely plans to go somewhere else.''
Altman said both students withdrew earlier this month, but he did not have an exact date.
He was unable to comment on what Ravi has been doing since removing himself from school.
Withdrawal was raised as a possibility by university officials during phone conversations in early October, Altman said.
In the wake of Clementi's suicide, people within and outside the university called for Ravi and Wei's immediate expulsion. Neither student was suspended, Altman said.
E.J. Miranda, spokesman for the university, declined to discuss Ravi and Wei, citing federal privacy laws. Wei's attorney, Rubin Sinins of Newark, did not return messages left Thursday. Sinins previously released a statement saying the first-year pharmacy student was innocent.
"Molly committed no crime. Her remarkable reputation is being unjustly tarnished by uninformed and incorrect assumptions,'' that statement read.
After learning that the images were posted, Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said it is investigating the possibility of bias crime charges against Ravi and Wei. The investigation is continuing, said Jim O'Neill, spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, the largest gay rights group in New Jersey, has called for hate-crime charges against Wei and Ravi.
"If Rutgers asked Mr. Ravi and Ms. Wei to withdraw, that seems like an entirely appropriate request,'' he said.
On Wednesday night, however, a group of about two dozen students community held a rally at Brower Commons on College Avenue criticizing what a spokesperson called "a rush to judgment'' in the swift condemnation of Ravi and Wei.
"There were people calling for them to be expelled. There were people who wanted manslaughter charges,'' said Lauren Felton, a senior from Warren. "A lot of the details are not known yet.''
"While we do not condone the actions that Ravi and Wei are alleged to have taken, neither can we stand aside and watch the Rutgers community lay the entire blame on two 18-year-olds,'' according to a statement by the group "Queering the Air'' that organized the rally.
The group also condemned comments made on several websites that mentioned the two students' Asian background and posted messages that urged the two to "return to their countries,'' according to Felton.
"We are against the crucifixion of two individuals for the sins of the larger society,'' said Robert O'Brien, an anthropology instructor and one of the leaders of Queering the Air.
According to Felton, the group, and other organizations on campus that represent gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, have "re-claimed'' the word queer, once considered an offensive slur.
Among the chants led by O'Brien Wednesday night were, "Queer liberation. Human liberation. It's all one struggle.''
In a press release, the group condemned Garden State Equality, an advocacy group that demanded Ravi and Wei be charged with hate crimes and receive "the maximum possible sentence.''
Goldstein, the director of Garden State Equality, the largest advocacy organization in the state for gays and lesbians, called Queering the Air a "radical fringe group.''
"They stand with (Ravi and Wei). We stand with Tyler Clementi,'' said Goldstein
While the students chanted on one side of College Avenue, three self-described "street preachers'' preached loudly to students waiting at the bus stop in front of the gymnasium.
"You say you were born homosexuals, you need to be born again,'' said Robert Parker of Old Bridge. "Education without salvation is damnation.'' Parker later went across the street and preached similar messages while members of Queering the Air continued to chant."
