The "drunk bus" charges fabricated

The Drunk Bus Photo: Brittany Gregory

The shocking allegations of a racially tinged assault at the University at Albany appeared to unravel Thursday as police accused three black students of making the story up and charged the women with assaulting a fellow bus passenger.

"It was a racial crime. They were calling us [N-word] and all this stuff," Agudio tells a 911 dispatcher, according to a copy of the call released by police. "And if someone doesn't come and take this down or something, I'm going to call the news."

The women grabbed national attention after claiming to have been attacked on a CDTA bus around 1 a.m. Jan. 30 by a large group that included white men while others stood by and did nothing.

University at Albany students claim they were attacked on CDTA bus on Jan 30, 2016. Campus police said women were aggressors in brawl and fabricated allegations of attack by white men.Media: Video Gopher

The incident roiled tensions on campus and garnered national media attention, including a sympathetic tweet from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Ariel Agudio, 20, of Huntington, Suffolk County; Alexis Briggs, 20, of Elmira Heights, Chemung County; and Asha Burwell, 20, of Huntington Station, Suffolk County, were all charged with misdemeanor assault, punishable by up to one year in jail.

Burwell and Agudio are also charged with misdemeanor falsely reporting an incident in connection with 911 calls they made to police immediately after the confrontation.

Read more...