Washington, March 24,2012: An Indian American student convicted of spying on his gay roommate with a webcam said he did some stupid things but didn’t cause the fellow pupil’s suicide days after the incident. Former Rutgers New Jersey State University student Dharun Ravi, 20, told ABC’s “20/20″ that he did some stupid things, but Tyler Clementi, who killed himself by leaping off the George Washington Bridge, had other problems.
“Even though I wasn’t the one who caused him to jump off the bridge, I did do things wrong and I was stupid about a lot of stuff,” Ravi told the news show. The former computer science student was convicted on 15 counts of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and other crimes after using a webcam to watch Clementi’s sexual encounter with another man in their dorm room. Ravi said he did some soul-searching after Clementi’s death, but concluded it wasn’t his fault. “The more and more I found out, it would be kind of obnoxious of me to think that I could have this profound effect on him,” Ravi said. Ravi said Clementi left a suicide note behind that authorities never released. “The fact that we weren’t allowed to read it, that they said it didn’t have anything to do with this, that gave me comfort also because I figured if it has nothing to do with me . . . it must have been something else that was going on,” he said. “I’m very sorry about Tyler,” Ravi told The Star-Ledger. “I want the Clementis to know I had no problem with their son. I didn’t hate Tyler and I know he was OK with me.”
“Even though I wasn’t the one who caused him to jump off the bridge, I did do things wrong and I was stupid about a lot of stuff,” Ravi told the news show. The former computer science student was convicted on 15 counts of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and other crimes after using a webcam to watch Clementi’s sexual encounter with another man in their dorm room. Ravi said he did some soul-searching after Clementi’s death, but concluded it wasn’t his fault. “The more and more I found out, it would be kind of obnoxious of me to think that I could have this profound effect on him,” Ravi said. Ravi said Clementi left a suicide note behind that authorities never released. “The fact that we weren’t allowed to read it, that they said it didn’t have anything to do with this, that gave me comfort also because I figured if it has nothing to do with me . . . it must have been something else that was going on,” he said. “I’m very sorry about Tyler,” Ravi told The Star-Ledger. “I want the Clementis to know I had no problem with their son. I didn’t hate Tyler and I know he was OK with me.”