PLAINSBORO, N.J. — The former Rutgers University student convicted in a webcam-spying case says that he was insensitive toward his gay roommate but not biased and that he doesn’t think he was the reason for his roommate’s suicide.
Dharun Ravi, 20, was convicted last week of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, a hate crime, after using a webcam to view a snippet of Tyler Clementi’s dorm-room liaison with another man, then tweeting about it. Clementi later threw himself off a bridge.
“I didn’t act out of hate, and I wasn’t uncomfortable with Tyler being gay,” Ravi told The Star-Ledger of Newark in his first interview since the saga began in September 2010.
Ravi also gave an interview to ABC News’ “20/20” that will be broadcast tonight. He told the show he doesn’t think the suicide was spawned by his actions. “It would be kind of obnoxious of me to think that I could have this profound effect on him,” he said. “I feel like I was an insignificant part to his life.”
During Ravi’s trial, evidence was presented that Clementi, 18, had visited Ravi’s Twitter page repeatedly in the two days before his death.
Ravi will be sentenced May 21.
