Matt Rainey for The New York TimesDharun Ravi during his trial at the Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 16, 2012.

Dharun Ravi was found guilty on all 15 counts he was charged with, including bias intimidation, in connection to the 2010 death of his gay former roommate, Tyler Clementi.

Now, he’s being tried by the media and he’s been more successful.

“I wasn’t biased,” Mr. Ravi told The Star-Ledger, which scored the first interview with him since he was convicted and painted him in a sympathetic light. “I didn’t act out of hate and I wasn’t uncomfortable with Tyler being gay.”

Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge days after Mr. Ravi, using a webcam in their dorm room, spied on Mr. Clementi’s intimate encounter with another man, and invited other students to watch.

“I’m very sorry about Tyler,” Mr. Ravi, 20, a former Rutgers University student, told the newspaper. “I have parents and a little brother, and I can only try to imagine how they feel. But I want the Clementis to know I had no problem with their son. I didn’t hate Tyler and I knew he was okay with me. I wanted to talk to his parents, but I was afraid. I didn’t know what to say.”

After Mr. Clementi found out he was spied on and wanted to transfer rooms, Mr. Ravi says he sought to apologize for his actions. “One of the most frustrating parts is that he never got my apology,” Mr. Ravi told The Star-Ledger. “I texted an apology and when he didn’t answer, I e-mailed him. I told him I didn’t want him to feel pressure to have to move and that we could work things out.”

Mr. Ravi confessed to being “a dumb kid” who didn’t think about the consequences of the way he behaved with

This article originally appeared on: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/dharun-ravi-denies-anti-gay-bias/