RALEIGH — The woman who in 2006 falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her — making national headlines that stirred tensions about race, class and the privilege of college athletes — has admitted publicly for the first time that she made up the story.
Crystal Mangum, who is black, said in an interview with the “Let’s Talk with Kat” podcast that she “made up a story that wasn’t true” about the white players who attended a party where she was hired to perform as a stripper “because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
“I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong,” Mangum, 46, said in the interview, which was released last Monday. The interview was recorded last month at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where Mangum is incarcerated for fatally stabbing her boyfriend in 2011.
The former Duke players were declared innocent in 2007 after Mangum’s story fell apart under legal scrutiny. The state attorney general’s office concluded there was no credible evidence an attack ever occurred, and its investigation found no DNA, witness or other evidence to confirm Mangum’s story.
Despite their names being cleared, Jim Cooney, one of the former players’ lawyers at the time, told The Associated Press that Mangum’s allegations caused an “enormous tornado of destruction” for countless people involved, including the accused men. They were wrongfully vilified nationally as “racially motivated rapists,” Cooney said.
The Durham prosecutor who championed Mangum’s case, Mike Nifong, was disbarred for lying and misconduct. Prosecutors at the time declined to press charges against Mangum for the false accusations.
“I am proud of Crystal even if it came decades too late,” Joe Cheshire, a Raleigh lawyer who defended Duke player Collin Finnerty in the case, told North State Journal. “The truth is always a wonderful thing to have. We always knew that these boys did not sexually assault Crystal Mangum in any way.
“The district attorney, in my opinion, also knew that, but he was out for as much publicity as he could get. Unfortunately for him, he took on the wrong lawyers, and he used lies instead of the truth Not only did that cause him tremendous personal loss, but it did a lot of damage to a lot of people. We see that too often in the criminal justice system. The prosecutor was punished, but nowhere near what he should have gotten, but at least we know he’ll never practice law again.”
The former lacrosse players reached an undisclosed settlement with Duke University in 2007 after suing it for the handling of the rape allegations.
Mangum, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 and is eligible to be released from prison as early as 2026, told the podcast interviewer that she hopes the three falsely accused men can forgive her.
“I want them to know that I love them, and they didn’t deserve that,” she said.
Durham-based podcaster Kat DePasquale said she wrote to Mangum because she was curious about the case that received so much attention. Mangum replied that she wanted to talk.
Mangum’s apology struck Cooney as sincere and “a good first step,” but he said the decision to forgive her is ultimately up to the three former lacrosse players.
“It’s going to be a part of their biography for the rest of their lives and part of their obituaries,” Cooney said of the three men.
“The boys are all doing really well,” Cheshire told NSJ. “Of course, they are men now, but they survived the trauma and may have even been better for their ability to just survive and go forward. It was one of the great joys and challenges of my life (to defend them).”
North State Journal’s Dan Reeves contributed to this piece.
