President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on Saturday morning to the news that the woman who accused three Duke Lacrosse players of rape in 2006 has now recanted her story.
“Woman admits to totally fabricating accusations in the horrible Duke Lacrosse Case,” Trump posted on social media. “She destroyed the lives of these young men.”
Crystal Mangum, now 46, made the admission during an interview with Katerena DePasquale at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where Mangum is serving time for killing her boyfriend in 2011.
“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. “I made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
Mangum added that she hoped the falsely accused students – David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann – could forgive her.
Mangum cannot be prosecuted for perjury, Duke student newspaper The Chronicle reported, because the statute of limitations on such a charge is only two years in North Carolina.
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Mangum is already in jail for the 2011 murder of her then-boyfriend Reginald Daye. Mangum claimed she was afraid for her life and charged with second-degree murder. She was found guilty in 2013 and sentenced to 14-17 years in prison, with a projected release date of February 27, 2026.
In 2006, Mangum was hired as a stripper for a party thrown by members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team. After the party, Mangum got into an altercation with another woman hired as a stripper that night, and police were called. Mangum was going to be involuntarily committed to a drug and mental health center and, fearing she would lose her child, falsely claimed she had been raped by Duke students.
At the same time, then-Durham County, North Carolina, District Attorney Mike Nifong, who was up for re-election, decided to use Mangum’s allegations to win his re-election despite apparent issues with her claims from the beginning. Nifong even conspired with the director of the DNA lab to withhold DNA evidence that cleared the Duke players of rape and continued to pursue the case, falsely telling the media he had the evidence.
Nifong also pressured Mangum into picking Duke players from a lineup. She picked three randomly – Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann – and they were charged. Seligmann was able to prove he was not even at the party at the time the rape was alleged to have occurred, providing ATM records and surveillance, as well as cell phone evidence and an affidavit from the taxi driver who drove him that night. His campus card was also swiped at his dorm during the time he was allegedly assaulting Mangum.
Mangum’s story also repeatedly changed throughout the proceedings. On December 22, 2006, Nifong finally dropped the charges after Mangum changed her story yet again. Six days later, the North Carolina bar filed ethics charges against Nifong over how he handled the case, and he was disbarred. He also spent one day in jail for his actions.
In early 2007, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the state Attorney General’s office declared the three students innocent – a rare move for anyone accused of rape.
Even after her allegations were proven false, Mangum maintained for years that she was a victim, even writing and promoting a book telling her alleged side of the story.
Ashe Schow contributed to this report.
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