Facing Potential Deportation, Convicted Rutgers Student Says He's Not Sorry He Nixed Plea Deal
Convicted last week of using a webcam to spy on his then-roommate while he was having sex with another man, a former Rutgers University student now says he’s very sorry about a situation that he describes largely as a misunderstanding. Shortly after the September 2010 incident, his roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington bridge.
But, says 20-year-old Dharun Ravi in an exclusive interview with the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger, he’s not sorry about rejecting a plea deal in the case that would have spared him the potential deportation sentence and prison term of up to 10 years he now faces after being convicted of bias crimes.
“I’m never going to regret not taking the plea,” he said. “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.”
Hat tip: New York Post.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-Rutgers Student Guilty on Multiple Counts, Could Get Max in Webcam Hate Crime Case”
