Crystal Mangum, the former stripper who shocked the nation in 2006 with accusations that the white members of the Duke University Lacrosse team had raped her, is finally admitting that she lied about the case.
The startling admission came in a jailhouse interview on the podcast Let’s Talk with Kat, during which Magnum admitted to the deception, Fox News reported.
“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 explained. “[I] made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
Mangum is currently in jail after being convicted of the 2011 murder of her boyfriend. In 2013, she was handed a nearly 18-year sentence for second-degree murder in that case.
The convict became national news in 2006 when she accused members of the Duke Lacrosse team of raping her when she was hired to perform for them at a team party. The accusations resulted in several of the team members being arrested and charged with the assault and even forced the college to cancel its entire Lacrosse season.
Ultimately, the three players, David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann, were found innocent, but not before the case consumed the media and became a focal point for race baiters.
Despite the verdict, though, Mike Nifong, the then Durham County district attorney, insisted that the players were guilty and consistently claimed that a “racially motivated” rape took place.
“The information that I have does lead me to conclude that a rape did occur,” Nifong said at the time. “The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done. It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so.”
However, Nifong was disbarred a year later when investigators discovered he had conspired to withhold DNA evidence that could have led to the players being acquitted of the crimes with which they were charged. Many of his previous cases were also reviewed, and some were found to have been conducted in violation of due process. And in one case, a murder conviction was overturned thanks to Nifong’s negligence.
Since the Duke case, Mangum has racked up a list of arrests and convictions. After the Duke case, but previous to her sentence for murder, Mangum was convicted on charges of setting her home ablaze with her three kids inside. She was also ordered to stay away from her children for several years. She also had a criminal record before the Duke case and, in one example, was arrested for grand theft auto.
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