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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The lady who in 2006 falsely accused three Duke College lacrosse gamers of raping her — making nationwide headlines that stirred tensions about race, class and the privilege of school athletes — has admitted publicly for the primary time that she made up the story.
Crystal Mangum, who’s Black, mentioned in an interview with the “Let’s Discuss with Kat” podcast that she “made up a narrative that wasn’t true” concerning the white gamers who attended a celebration the place she was employed to carry out as a stripper “as a result of I needed validation from individuals and never from God.”
“I testified falsely towards them by saying that they raped me after they didn’t and that was unsuitable,” Mangum, 46, mentioned within the interview, which was launched Monday. The interview was recorded final month on the North Carolina Correctional Establishment for Girls, the place Mangum is incarcerated for fatally stabbing her boyfriend in 2011.
The previous Duke gamers have been declared harmless in 2007 after Mangum’s story fell aside beneath authorized scrutiny. The state legal professional common’s workplace concluded there was no credible proof an assault ever occurred, and its investigation discovered no DNA, witness or different proof to substantiate Mangum’s story.
Regardless of their names being cleared, Jim Cooney, one of many former gamers’ legal professionals on the time, advised The Related Press that Mangum’s allegations induced an “huge twister of destruction” for numerous individuals concerned, together with the accused males. They have been wrongfully vilified nationally as “racially motivated rapists,” Cooney mentioned.
The Durham prosecutor who championed Mangum’s case was disbarred for mendacity and misconduct. Prosecutors on the time declined to press fees towards Mangum for the false accusations.
The previous lacrosse gamers reached an undisclosed settlement with Duke College in 2007 after suing it for the dealing with of the rape allegations.
Mangum, who was convicted of second-degree homicide in 2013 and is eligible to be launched from jail as early as 2026, advised the podcast interviewer that she hopes the three falsely accused males can forgive her.
“I would like them to know that I really like them they usually didn’t deserve that,” she mentioned.
Durham-based podcaster Kat DePasquale mentioned she wrote to Mangum as a result of she was curious concerning the case that bought a lot consideration, and that Mangum wrote again saying she needed to speak.
Mangum’s apology struck Cooney as honest and “ first step,” however he mentioned the choice to forgive her is finally as much as the three former lacrosse gamers.
“It’s going to be part of their biography for the remainder of their lives and a part of their obituaries,” Cooney mentioned of the three males.