Former stripper and current murder convict Crystal Mangum admitted lying about being raped by Duke lacrosse players in an interview on independent media outlet “Let’s Talk with Kat” on Thursday.
Mangum said, “I committed perjury against him by saying that he raped me when he did not and that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of many other people who believed in me.” “[I]created a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people, not from God.”
Mangum, who is serving a prison sentence for murdering her boyfriend, falsely accused three Duke players of raping her while performing at a team party in March 2006. The players he accused were arrested, sparking a national controversy and conversation about racism.
Three players, David Evans, Colin Finnerty and Reade Seligman, were all found innocent of the crimes. But Mangum was not prosecuted for perjury because of questions about his mental health.
Former North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said at the time, “She may have actually believed many of the different stories she’s telling.”
Mangum can no longer be prosecuted for perjury because the statute of limitations on perjury charges in North Carolina is only around two years.
These allegations resulted in the team having to cancel a game against Georgetown in March 2008.
Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who served as lead prosecutor in the case, said in March 2006 Interview with CBS News stating that “there is no doubt that a sexual assault occurred” and that it was “racially motivated.”
“From the information I have, I have come to the conclusion that rape did occur,” Nifong said. “The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for certain things. This creates a crime which by its nature is one of the most offensive and even more offensive.”
Nifong was later disbarred by the North Carolina State Bar on June 16, 2007, for lying in court and concealing DNA evidence, ultimately absolving the defendants of responsibility for Mangum’s charges.
Mangum also claimed in a book published in 2008 titled “Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story” that “something” happened that night.
“I will never say that nothing happened that night,” she wrote.
Mangum was convicted in March 2011 of first-degree murder and two counts of burglary. The year before that, she was convicted of misdemeanor battery after starting a fire that nearly burned down her home with her three children inside.
In a videotaped police interrogation, she told officers that she had had a confrontation with her boyfriend at the time, not Day, and that he had burned her clothes, broken her car window and threatened to stab her.
According to North Carolina Department of Corrections records, he was born on July 18, 1978, to a truck driver. She was the youngest of three children, not far from the home where she claimed she was attacked in 2006.
In 1993, when she was 14, Mangum claimed that three men abducted her, took her to a house in Creedmoor, NC, 15 miles from Durham, and raped her. She said one of the men was her boyfriend at the time and the man who was physically and emotionally abusive was seven years her senior.
Creedmoor Police Chief Ted Pollard said Mangum filed a report on the incident on August 18, 1996, three years after the alleged rape.
However, the case was not pursued further because, according to her relatives, the accuser withdrew the allegations out of fear for her life.
Vincent Clark, co-author of Mangum’s self-published memoir, said he hoped people would not rush to judgment – echoing one of the oft-cited lessons of the lacrosse case.
Clark said Mangum realizes he has mental health issues.
“I feel sad for him. I hope people realize how hard this is for them, Clark said.
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