UPDATE: NY students who were targets of pseudo-attack CHARGED & EXPELLED!!

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Three New York college students who said they were targets of a racially motivated attack face multiple charges for what prosecutors are calling a false claim. A grand jury on Monday indicted Ariel Agudio, Asha Burwell and Alexis Briggs, all 20, each on a charge of third-degree assault and multiple counts of falsely reporting an incident, the Albany District Attorney's Office said. Agudio and Burwell also face charges of harassment. Agudio also was charged with two counts of attempted assault.

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The State University of New York at Albany rallied behind the students, who are black, when they came forward with claims that a group of white men and women attacked them on January 30 in a confrontation on a city bus. Students held a rally and university President Robert J. Jones said in a letter to students and faculty that he was "deeply concerned, saddened and angry about this incident." Others came to their defense on social media using the hashtag #DefendBlackGirlsUAlbany. The People of Color Caucus issued a letter in support of them.

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But university police said an investigation revealed that no one used racial epithets against the women. Instead, they assaulted another passenger and falsely reported the incident. "What happened on the bus was not a 'hate crime,'" University Police Chief Frank Wiley said in February. "The only person we heard uttering racial epithets was one of the defendants."

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University at Albany President Robert J. Jones said in an email to The Albany Times Union Thursday that Ariel Agudio and Asha Burwell were dismissed from the college. A third student, Alexis Briggs, was suspended for two years.

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