Jury Seated in Clementi Trial

A jury has been selected in the trial of a 19-year-old Rutgers student charged with spying on his roommate days before the roommate committed suicide, according to NJ.com.

Opening statements in the trial of Dharun Ravi, of Plainsboro, are expected to begin Friday. The 15-count indictment charges Ravi with invasion of privacy, hindering apprehension and bias intimidation. The bias charges--two second-degree and two third-degree--are consider the most serious. The second-degree offense carries a prison sentence of five to 10 years, if convicted, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutors say Ravi set up a webcam and secretly watched his roommate,  Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, "in an intimate encounter with another man" and then attempted to do so again two days later, according to NorthJersey.com. Clementi learned of the spying and committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge a few days later.

The 16-member jury--eight men and eight women--was selected over a four-day period, according to various press reports. Four alternates will be chosen from among the 16 before they start deliberating.