Back in 2006, a North Carolina Central University student who worked part-time as a stripper was hired for a party held by the Duke University lacrosse team. After, she claimed she was raped by three team members.
The claims by Crystal Mangum destroyed at least for a while the lives of the three, put an overzealous prosecutor behind bars and cost Duke millions of dollars, reports have confirmed over the years.
Now she’s admitting, on video, what society has known for years: She made it all up.
In her statement, she said, “I testified falsely against [the lacrosse players] by saying that they raped me when they didn’t…I made up a story that wasn’t true…I hope that they can forgive me.”
More than 18 years after Crystal Mangum accused 3 Duke lacrosse players of rape, she admits that she made it up.
“I testified falsely against by saying that they raped me when they didn’t…I made up a story that wasn’t true…I hope that they can forgive me.” pic.twitter.com/qomuQUn2dm
— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) December 13, 2024
A report at RedState said Mangum had maintained her story even in a book she wrote in 2008.
But now, as she nears the end of her prison sentence for second-degree murder for the death of her then-boyfriend in 2011, she confessed, during an interview on “Let’s Talk with Kat,” at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.
“I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said in the interview. “[I] made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
RedState reported her allegations turned the community into a mob rule society.
“Players were ostracized and received death threats. The team was condemned by faculty, and their season suspended. Black Panthers set up camp on the quad. White residents of Durham were randomly beaten up. The local paper took the side of the stripper. The police intimidated witnesses who had alibis for the accused. The DA committed fraud, lied and misrepresented information (he was eventually disbarred),” the report said.
It got worse, “A group of 88 Duke professors took out an ad in April of that year in the student newspaper, strongly insinuating without evidence that the players were guilty of racism, sexism, and rape, and saying they (the professors) were listening as the community shared their stories of feeling targeted based on their race/sex,” the report said.
It was Democrat Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong who pursued the players, only to later resign in disgrace. He later was disbarred for his behavior and sent to jail for a day, the report said, over “fraud, dishonesty, deceit or misrepresentation; of making false statements of material fact before a judge; of making false statements of material fact before bar investigators, and of lying about withholding exculpatory DNA evidence, among other violations.”
Roy Cooper, then attorney general but now governor, then declared the players innocent and announced charges were dropped.
Lawsuits against the city and Duke were later settled, reportedly for millions of dollars.
The report noted the accused players “went on to have successful careers.”
