Huntington Women Charged With Fabricating UAlbany Hate Crime: Police

Photo: (l-r) Asha Burwell and Ariel Agudio (via Twitter)

ALBANY, NY- Two Walt Whitman High School graduates are among the three black University at Albany students who falsely claimed to be victims of a hate crime and are now facing the consequences, the school announced Thursday.

First believed to be victims of a racially biased attack on a city bus, the women are now accused of physically assaulting a 19-year-old woman from Congers just after 1 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30.

According to the school, Ariel Agudio, 20, of Huntington, and Asha Burwell, 20, of Huntington Station, made a 911 call from their cell phones alleging they, along with 20-year-old Alexis Briggs of Elmira Heights, were attacked.

The women told police they were beaten by 10-12 people and were called racial slurs all while the bus driver made no effort to stop the assault.

Burwell also took to social media to publicly detail the incident that reportedly never happened. Burwell’s post on Facebook, which was shared by the Albany Times Union, said:

“Hey guys, it was me that tweeted that my friends and I were just beaten on a bus and continuously called ignorant and then niggers, it started off with girls yelling at us and then my friend helped me because I was being hit and then a whole bunch of guys started hitting me and my two friends, punching us in the head, I was yelling and begging anyone to help and people just recorded it or told us to “shut the fuck up,” no one helped us not even the bus driver who let the bus sit at the stop at the social science building while my friend got beat in the head by white guys.”

The supposed assault caused an uproar and hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters rallied and used the hashtag #defendblackgirlsualbany.

The incident caught the attention of Hillary Clinton who tweeted, “There’s no excuse for racism and violence on a college campus.”

Despite the national attention, a three-week long investigation by the University Police Department revealed Agudio, Burwell and Briggs were the actual ones doing the attacking, police say.

Authorities interviewed 35 passengers on the bus, reviewed videotape from 12 bus security camera videos, reviewed four videos taken by passengers on cell phones, reviewed university surveillance footage, examined UAlbany building access records and reviewed audio recordings.

All evidence showed that no hate crime occurred, no male struck any of the three women and the women actually continued to assault the 19-year-old Congers woman despite many passengers on the bus attempting to stop them, police say.

The Times Union shared footage of the incident:

“We took this incident very seriously and did a thorough and careful investigation,” UPD Chief J. Frank Wiley said in a statement. “The evidence shows that, contrary to how the defendants originally portrayed things, these three individuals were not the victims of a crime. Rather, we allege that they are perpetrators.”

Wiley said authorities spent more than 300 hours investigating this case. “I am very grateful for the good work of the investigation team and for the assistance we received from our partners in law enforcement,” he said.

Agudio, Burwell and Briggs will be arraigned at Albany County Court on Monday morning.

• Agudio was charged with third degree assault, third degree falsely reporting an incident, third degree attempted assault and fourth degree attempted criminal mischief.
• Burwell was charged with third degree assault and third degree falsely reporting an incident.
• Briggs was charged with third degree assault.

Images via Twitter of Burwell and Agudio