Crystal Mangum, who accused Duke lacrosse players of rape, says she 'testified falsely' against them

Virginia Bridges, The Charlotte Observer on Dec 13, 2024

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For the first time publicly, Crystal Mangum said she lied nearly 18 years ago when she accused Duke University lacrosse players of raping her.

Mangum, now 46, apologized to the men in an interview posted on letstalkwithkat.com and said that she lied about being raped by three players in March 2006.

“I testified falsely against them by saying they raped me when they didn’t and that was wrong,” she said in an interview from a woman’s state prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she is serving on an unrelated second-degree murder conviction.

Mangum said she made up the story because she wanted “validation from people and not from God.”

In March 2006, Mangum accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her at an off-campus party in Durham where she was hired to perform as an exotic dancer. The former students, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans, where charged with sexually assaulting Mangum.

The accusations drew international news coverage, but the men were fully exonerated after defense attorneys brought strong evidence contradicting the claims.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, then state attorney general, dropped all charges, in part due to Mangum’s varying versions of the assault.

“As attorney general it was important for me to take that case from the local prosecutor, do an investigation to find the real truth,” Cooper said Friday when asked about Magnum’s comments. “It is why I dismissed the charges and took the extra step to declare those players innocent of those alleged crimes.”

Mike Nifong, the Durham County district attorney who prosecuted the case was disbarred. And the former rental home were it occurred was demolished.

Mangum in time moved from being an accuser to being accused.

In 2010, Mangum escaped an arson charge but was convicted of child abuse and other misdemeanors after police said she put her children and others in dangers when she lit a pile of her then boyfriend’s clothes on fire in the bathtub during a fight.

In 2013, a jury convicted Mangum of second-degree murder after she stabbed her roommate and boyfriend Reginald Day in 2011. Mangum testified the stabbing was in self-defense.

Mangum is expected to be released from prison in February 2026, according to the North Carolina Department of Corrections.

Sidney Harr, a longtime advocate of Mangum, said in an interview that he has known her for 12 years and that Mangun has never told him that the rape didn’t occur.

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