Chinese prosecutors filed only light charges against a man who police say killed a college student while driving drunk and who witnesses say then tried to use his father's position as a police official to avoid punishment, an incident that has come to symbolize rampant abuse of power among the families of officials.

Prosecutors on Wednesday formally accused 23-year-old Li Qiming of "crimes causing traffic casualties" for the October incident, a relatively minor offense that carries a maximum sentence of seven years. The decision not to file more serious charges could further inflame popular anger over the case just as Beijing is stepping up efforts to make regular citizens feel the government is more responsive.

An attorney for the victim's family, who was present at Wednesday's brief trial proceedings at the Wangdu County People's Court in Hebei province, said Mr. Li pleaded guilty to the prosecutors' charges. The court didn't comment on the plea but said Mr. Li's sentence would be announced at a later date. Prosecutors couldn't be reached to comment, nor could Mr. Li's family or his lawyer.

Mr. Li was driving while intoxicated in October on the campus of Hebei University in Bao-ding, a midsize city 150 kilometers southwest of Beijing, when his black Volkswagen sedan struck two students who were on roller skates, according to a government report on the incident. He proceeded to drop off a passenger elsewhere at the school before being stopped by other students and university guards. China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that one of the students he hit, 20-year-old Chen Xiaofeng, later died in the hospital from her injuries. A second 20-year-old suffered a fractured leg.

Mr. Li's father, Li Gang, was at the time deputy chief of a district police bureau in Baoding. Witnesses to the incident said at the time that when the guards detained Mr. Li, he shouted: "Charge me if you dare. My father is Li Gang."

Word of the incident spread rapidly through the Internet, and "My father is Li Gang" became a ubiquitous catchphrase for corruption in a country where the families of officials frequently use their station to gain wealth and special treatment.

Public criticism of official abuses on China's Internet has grown increasingly intense in recent years. Last weekend, a group of animators in Beijing released a satirical cartoon called "Greeting Card for the Year of the Rabbit," in which a boy dreams of violent revolution against a corrupt, abusive government run by tigers who are a thinly veiled representation of Chinese authorities.

The cartoon, which was circulated widely on Chinese websites before being taken down Monday nigh, depicts a group of animated rabbits who suffer a series of abuses under their tiger overlords apparently meant to evoke recent real-life scandals in China, including a scene in which tigers run over rabbits in a speeding car—widely interpreted as a reference to Mr. Li's case. The rabbits eventually respond by slaughtering their tiger leaders.

China's Communist Party leaders have acknowledged that anger over corruption could threaten their hold on power. The government has undertaken repeated crackdowns and tried to seem more responsive to public complaints.

On Tuesday, Premier Wen Jiabao visited the State Bureau for Letters and Calls in Beijing, where petitioners seek central government redress for abuses by government officials. In the first public visit to the bureau by a top leader, state media described Mr. Wen shaking hands and chatting with petitioners, telling them that reasonable appeals would be resolved. Mr. Wen said the government should expand channels for the public to suggest changes of the government, and urged officials to protect people's rights and interests.

The government has tried previously to soothe public ire over Mr. Li's case, with state television airing a tearful apology by him and his father in the days after the incident. The Lis later agreed to pay 460,000 yuan, or nearly $70,000, in compensation to Ms. Chen's family—several times the annual salary of a typical Chinese official—in exchange for the family's agreement not to ask the court for upgraded criminal charges against Mr. Li, according to Hu Yihua, the Chen family's attorney. Xinhua reported that the Lis also paid an additional 92,000 yuan to the family of the student injured by Mr. Li.

Some Internet users on Wednesday criticized Mr. Li's prosecutors, pointing to state media reports of other cases in recent years in which drunk drivers involved in fatal accidents received tougher sentences. In October 2009, for example, a truck driver who killed one person and injured another received a 12-year prison sentence for endangering public security. This past November, a drunk driver was sentenced to death for a hit-and-run accident that killed two people and injured seven others.

"Why isn't [Li Qiming] accused of intentional homicide and crimes against public security?" wrote one user on the site China.com who used the name Tian Yi Zhai. It will be "hard to assuage public indignation" if Mr. Li "is not accused of crimes against public security," wrote a user on Tianya.cn, a popular online forum.

Zhang Kai, an attorney who initially represented the family of Ms. Chen, the victim, said in an interview that while he feels the charges against Mr. Li are inadequate, the fact that he is being charged at all and faces possible prison time is a result of strong online reaction to the case. "Without this much public attention on the case, it would not have even made it to this step," Mr. Zhang said.