Ex-Rutgers student in spy case touted 'viewing party'

A Rutgers student accused of electronically spying on his roommate sent Twitter messages to a high school friend in anticipation that he would catch his new, gay roommate having sex. Michelle Huang, a student at Cornell University in New York, said Monday that Rutgers student Dharun Ravi messaged her that what he expected to happen Sept. 21, 2010, "could get nasty." Huang is one of several of Ravi's friends from a Plainsboro, N.J., high school who have testified in the trial, in which Ravi is charged with spying on roommate Tyler Clementi. Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge the next day; his body was discovered in the Hudson River a week later. Ravi is charged with bias intimidation as a hate crime, invasion of privacy and hindering apprehension. He is not charged in connection with Clementi's death. Huang said she did not remember the exact words of a tweet from Ravi on Sept. 21 asking her to remotely activate a video chat that he had set up. "The tweet said something about "daring to video chat me," said Huang, who said she did not remotely activate the webcam in Ravi's room to spy on Clementi. Huang also said she remembers Ravi making a reference to a "viewing party" but did not know what Ravi meant at the time. Others have testified that Ravi sent tweets to encourage students to watch Clementi and his guest, known as M.B., on the night of Sept. 21, 2010. Two days before, Ravi is alleged to have used his webcam to spy on Clementi, streaming live video into at least one Rutgers dorm room where other students saw Clementi and M.B. becoming intimate. Clementi discovered the webcam, aimed at his bed, and disabled it before his Sept. 21 encounter.