A former student of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston was convicted of breaking the state’s wiretap law when he videotaped himself having sex with a woman in his fraternity house.

A jury also found 22-year-old Jeffrey O’Brien guilty of conspiracy for asking a friend to hide in his closet in the Alpha Epsilon Pi house and tape the 1996 liason with a then-21-year-old woman who was als a student at the university.

She testified during the two-day trial that she agreed to meet O’Brien in his room. O’Brien, who was convicted Feb. 26, is scheduled for sentencing April 24. He faces up to five years for each crime.

He and cameraman Jordan Smith, 21, were kicked out of the fraternity and suspended from the university.

“We’re not interested in discussing this matter until we see what happens next,” said a student who refused to give his name but identified himself as the fraternity’s president. “All I can say is that those two are no longer affiliated with us.”

Smith pleaded no contest in January to conspiracy and wiretapping. He was sentenced to 18 months probation and ordered to pay a $900 fine. According to news reports, Smith testified that O’Brien asked him to tape the sexual encounter.

Smith said the filming went well until the woman spied the camera’s lens poking out of a closet. Smith testified that the woman wrestled the tape from him and left the house with it.

Rhode Island law prohibits the recording of a conversation without the consent of both parties if the recording is intended to break another law. Washington County prosecutor Kathleen Hagerty successfully argued that in this case O’Brien’s videotape also violated privacy law.

? Compiled by College Press Service