Crystal Mangum admits to lying about being raped by Duke lacrosse players in 2006

Former stripper and current murder convict Crystal Mangum admitted to lying about being raped by Duke lacrosse players in an interview on independent media outlet “Let’s Talk With Kat” on Thursday.

“I testified falsely against them by saying that they had raped me when they hadn’t, and that was false, and I betrayed the trust of many other people who believed in me,” Mangum said . “(I) made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people, not God.”

Mangum, who is serving a prison sentence for the murder of her boyfriend, falsely accused three Duke players of raping her while she was performing at a team party in March 2006. The players she accused were arrested, sparking a nationwide controversy and conversations about racism. The allegations even led the team to cancel a game against Georgetown.

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In this August 2010 file photo, Crystal Mangum, who was at the center of the Duke University lacrosse scandal, was accused of stabbing a man to death in an apartment in Durham, North Carolina, on April 3, 2011. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News Observer/MCT)

The three players, David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, were all found innocent. But Mangum was not prosecuted for perjury because of questions about her mental health.

“Perhaps she actually believed the many different stories she told,” former North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said at the time.

Mangum cannot currently be prosecuted for perjury because the statute of limitations for perjury charges in North Carolina is only about two years.

Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who served as lead prosecutor in the case, said in a March 2006 interview with CBS News that “there is no doubt that a sexual assault occurred” and that it was “racially motivated.” .

CRYSTAL GAIL MANGUM: DUKE RAPE ACCUSER PROFILE

Crystal mangum (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News Observer/MCT)

“The information I have leads me to conclude that a rape did indeed occur,” Nifong said. “The circumstances of the rape suggested a deep racist motivation for some of the acts. This makes a crime that by its nature is one of the most offensive and invasive even more so.”

Nifong was later disbarred by the North Carolina State Bar on June 16, 2007 for lying in court and withholding DNA evidence, ultimately absolving the defendants of responsibility for Mangum’s allegations.

Mangum also claimed that “something” happened that night in a book she published in 2008 called “Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.”

“I will never say that nothing at all happened that night,” she wrote.

Mangum was charged in March 2011 with first-degree murder and two counts of theft. A year earlier, she was convicted of misdemeanor charges after setting a fire that nearly torched her home with her three children. In a videotaped police interview, she told officers that she got into a confrontation with her then-boyfriend, not Daye, burned his clothes, smashed the windshield of his car and threatened to stab him.

According to North Carolina Department of Corrections records, she was born on July 18, 1978, the daughter of a truck driver. She grew up as the youngest of three children not far from the house where she was allegedly attacked in 2006.

In 1993, when she was 14, Mangum claimed to have been kidnapped by three men, driven to a home in Creedmoor, North Carolina, 15 miles from Durham, and raped. She said one of the men was her boyfriend at the time and was a physically and emotionally abusive man who was seven years older than her.

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In this August 2010 file photo, Crystal Mangum, who was at the center of the Duke University lacrosse scandal, was charged with stabbing a man to death early Sunday, April 3, 2011, in an apartment in Durham, North Carolina. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT)

Creedmoor Police Chief Ted Pollard said Mangum filed a report about the incident on Aug. 18, 1996, three years after the alleged rapes. However, the case was not pursued further because, according to her relatives, the prosecutor withdrew from the prosecution out of fear for her life.

Vincent Clark, a friend who co-authored Mangum’s self-published memoir, said he hopes people don’t rush to judgment – echoing one of the oft-cited lessons from the lacrosse case itself.

Clark said Mangum was aware she had mental health issues.

“I feel sad for her. I hope people realize how difficult it is to be her,” Clark said.

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