Ravi: I didn't cause Clementi's suicide

PLAINSBORO, N.J. -- The former Rutgers University student convicted in a webcam spying case says he was insensitive toward his gay roommate but not biased, and 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. The case gained huge attention when Clementi threw himself off the George Washington 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 media interview since the saga began in September 2010.

Ravi also gave an interview to ABC News' "20/20" that's to be broadcast tonight. He told the news show he is sad about the suicide, but doesn't believe it was spawned by his actions.

"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 told ABC. "After all this time and reading his conversations and how and what he was doing before, I really don't think he cared at all. I feel like I was an insignificant part to his life. That's giving me comfort now."

In the trial, there was evidence that Clementi, 18, had visited Ravi's Twitter page repeatedly in the two days before his death.

A jury convicted Ravi of all 15 counts, finding he invaded Clementi's privacy and tried to cover it up. More significant, he was convicted of bias intimidation, a charge that required jurors to find that he acted out of malice against gays -- or that Clementi reasonably believed he did.

Before the case went to trial, prosecutors offered Ravi a plea deal that would have called for no jail time.

"I'm never going to regret not taking the plea," Ravi told The Star-Ledger. "If I took the plea, I would have had to testify that I did what I did to intimidate Tyler and that would be a lie. I won't ever get up there and tell the world I hated Tyler because he was gay, or tell the world I was trying to hurt or intimidate him because it's not true."