PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The death of a Rutgers University freshman stirred outrage and remorse among classmates who said they wished they could have stopped the teen from jumping off a bridge after secret video of his sexual encounter with a man was streamed online.
Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River last week. His body was identified Thursday after being found in the river a day before.
"Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened," said Rutgers student Lauren Felton, 21. "He wouldn't have been outed via an online broadcast, and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life."
Clementi was a violinist whose life revolved around music, said Ed Schmiedecke, the recently retired music director at Ridgewood High School, from which Clementi graduated this year.
"He was a terrific musician, and a very promising, hardworking young man," Schmiedecke said.
Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei, both 18, have been charged with invading Clementi's privacy. Middlesex County prosecutors say that they used a webcam to surreptitiously transmit a live image of Clementi having sex Sept. 19 and that Ravi tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi's suicide.
They face up to five years in prison if convicted. A lawyer for Ravi did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and it was unclear whether Wei had retained a lawyer.
Parry Aftab, who runs the website WiredSafety, said it's possible the classmates could be prosecuted for violating Clementi's civil rights.
"If these kids could get away with one privacy law violation, that would be a sin," she said.
But former assistant Essex County prosecutor Luanne Peterpaul said such a prosecution was unlikely because the federal government doesn't recognize sexual orientation as a protected class.
Peterpaul, vice chairwoman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said prosecutors might be able to pursue the case as a hate crime if they could establish that the defendants were motivated to act because they perceived Clementi as gay. But that can be hard to prove, she said.
Clementi was a talented violinist whose life revolved around music, friends and mentors said.
"Musically, Tyler was destined for greatness," childhood friend Mary Alcaro, who played in a summer music academy with him, said Thursday in an email to The Associated Press. "I've never heard anyone make a violin sing the way he did."
A lawyer for Clementi's family has not responded to requests for comment on whether Clementi was open about his sexual orientation.
ABC News and The Star-Ledger of Newark reported that Clementi left on his Facebook page on Sept. 22 a note that read: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." Later, his Facebook page was accessible only to friends.
About 100 people gathered Wednesday night for a vigil on campus. They lay on the ground and chanted slogans like, "We're here, we're queer, we're not going home."
Rutgers University President Richard McCormick wrote in a letter to the campus, "If the charges are true, these actions gravely violate the university's standards of decency and humanity."
Coincidentally, the university this week launched Project Civility, designed to get students thinking about how they treat others.
