https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/14/us/crystal-mangum-duke-lacrosse-
allegations/index.html

CNN � More than 18 years after accusing three former Duke University
lacrosse players of raping her, a falsified account she shared in graphic
detail, Crystal Mangum has admitted she lied about the encounter.

In an interview on a web show published Wednesday, Mangum apologized to
the men and said her relationship with God has made her understand why she
fabricated the story. Mangum is serving time in prison on a second-degree
murder conviction for killing her boyfriend.

The timeline of the North Carolina case begins in 2006, when Mangum said
she was trapped inside a bathroom, sexually assaulted and raped by David
Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann at a team party where she was
performing as an exotic dancer. The men were arrested following her
allegations.

�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 on Katerena DePasquale�s show,
�Let�s Talk with Kat.� �I made up a story that wasn�t true because I
wanted validation from people and not from God.�

For more than a year, the school and the lacrosse players were thrust into
a media frenzy, subjected to intense public scrutiny and damaging
allegations of sexual assault that were ultimately dropped.

After Mangum�s confession, Duke told CNN on Friday it would not comment.
The former players did not respond to CNN�s request for comment.

Here�s how the events unfolded.

A timeline of the events
� March 13, 2006: Mangum is hired as a dancer for a private party held by
members of the Duke men�s lacrosse team. It takes place at a house on
North Buchanan Boulevard in Durham. Mangum later accuses several players
of raping her during the party early on March 14.

� March 28, 2006: Duke President Richard Brodhead suspends team play for
the men�s lacrosse team, a move widely criticized as premature since no
formal charges had been made yet. Media attention intensifies, with early
reports painting a picture of privileged, White lacrosse players being
accused by a Black woman. The case becomes a flashpoint for issues of
race, class and privilege, according to the Washington Post.

� March 28-30, 2006: DNA tests on Mangum�s body fail to link any of the
lacrosse players to the scene, according to a disciplinary order against
prosecutor Mike Nifong by the North Carolina State Bar, but Nifong insists
on moving forward with the case. Skepticism about the case begins to
mount.

� April 18, 2006: Nifong formally charges Seligmann and Finnerty with
rape, according to the disciplinary order. The charges are based largely
on Mangum�s testimony, as forensic evidence was either inconclusive or
absent.

� May 15, 2006: Nifong formally charges Evans with rape, according to the
disciplinary order.

� June 5, 2006: Duke announces the lacrosse team is reinstated to play in
the following fall, but public sentiment has already soured.

� December 28, 2006: Nifong is accused of withholding evidence and making
misleading statements to the press, leading to an investigation by the
state bar, according to the disciplinary order.

� April 11, 2007: Roy Cooper � then the state�s Attorney General and now
its governor � announces �there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any
of the charges� in a statement shared by Duke Athletics. The charges are
dropped.

�We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse
and a failure to verify serious allegations,� Cooper said. �Based on the
significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts
given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are
innocent of these charges.�

� June 16, 2007: Nifong loses his law license following disciplinary
hearings about his handling of the case, including accusations of ethical
misconduct and withholding evidence. His disbarment is finalized by the
state bar in July, according to the disciplinary order.

� June 18, 2007: Duke announces that it has settled with the three
lacrosse players, agreeing to pay a confidential settlement.

�It is impossible to fully describe what we, our families and team
endured. As we said from day one, we are innocent,� Evans, Finnerty and
Seligmann said in a statement. �But it took three hundred and ninety-four
days, and the intervention of the North Carolina Attorney General, before
our innocence was formally declared.�

� October 5, 2007: The three players file a civil lawsuit against the city
of Durham, Nifong and other individuals, according to court documents.
Durham later settles the lawsuit in part with a one-time grant of $50,000
to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.

� April 3, 2011: Mangum is charged with stabbing her boyfriend, leading to
a lengthy criminal trial, and is convicted of second-degree murder in
2013.

�I hope they can forgive me�
Mangum has spent 11 years in prison, which she is getting through by
reading the Bible and finding humor in her thoughts, she said in her
interview with �Let�s Talk with Kat.�

She wishes she could help children who were sexually abused, she told
DePasquale. When asked if she could describe her experience in prison in
one word, she says: �Growth.�

Before becoming an exotic dancer, she studied psychology at North Carolina
Central University. The transition came from her searching for
�validation,� she said in the interview.

�I was looking for love and acceptance from people,� she said. �People to
love me, to accept me, to pay attention to me for validation. But you can
get all of that in Jesus. He loves us just the way we are. That�s what I
learned in prison.

�I hurt my brothers and I hope they can forgive me and I want them to know
that I love them and they didn�t deserve that and I hope they can forgive
me. I hope they can heal.�

The danger of false rape allegations for actual victims
An advocate for victims of sexual assault said rare cases like this might
discourage victims from reporting sexual assault and cause people to
wrongly doubt them.

�False reports hurt not only the people falsely accused, they hurt every
rape victim,� Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, vice president of communications
for RAINN, the nation�s largest anti-sexual violence organization, told
CNN. �There are already too many victims who do not report the crime for
fear of not being believed. After a false report in such a high-profile
case, even more survivors may be reluctant to come forward out of fear
that law enforcement will not believe them.�

A study published by Violence Against Women in 2010 found that false
sexual assault reports range from between 2 to 10 percent. A majority of
sexual assaults, an estimated 63 percent, are never reported to the
police, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Kaleba said she encourages people to consider the nearly half million
victims in the US of rape and sexual assault each year who may now face
renewed disbelief and question the value of reporting sexual violence.

�Don�t allow infrequent, false reporting to stand in the way of standing
with survivors,� Kaleba said.

--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
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The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
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Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.