Calif. College Students Face Hate Crime Charges for Harassing Black Roommate

Allegations of terrorizing him for three months

Three white San Jose State University students spent three months terrorizing their black roommate with racial slurs, Nazi imagery and once clamped a bicycle lock around his neck and are now facing hate crime charges, prosecutors said.

Freshmen Logan Beaschler, Joseph Bomgardner and Colin Warren were suspended Thursday after they were charged with hate crimes and battery for waging a three-month campaign of abuse against their then 17-year-old roommate, the university said.

The cruel trio nicknamed the boy "three fifths" — referring to how the colonial-era U.S. government once counted slaves at three-fifths of a person — or simply "fraction," and outfitted their four-bedroom pad with Nazi and Confederate symbols, including swastikas and a picture of Hitler, San Jose prosecutors said.