The woman at the center of the viral rape case against a Duke University student athlete is finally speaking out over a decade after the case was closed to confirm what the public already suspected about the validity of her allegations.
All eyes were on Crystal Mangum when she accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her when she performed at one of their team parties in their home in 2006. Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann had their lives sent into a spiral after the allegations, facing arrest, rape charges and suspensions from school, per The New York Post. Even the then-head lacrosse coach, Mike Pressler, resigned as a result of the case, per NPR.
The narrative was perpetuated by the then-Durham County district attorney that these white boys sexually assaulted an innocent Black woman in some cruel “racially motivated” act, the reports say. However, throughout the case, Mangum’s story began to take a few new shapes, casting doubt on her honesty about the incident. In the end, the players were acquitted of their charges after DNA evidence failed to connect them to Mangum, per court records.
Since then, the report says the students transferred to graduate at other schools and sued Duke’s president for enabling foul treatment against them before the verdict came down. On the other hand, Mangum ended up with a murder conviction in the killing of her boyfriend. However, the looming suspicion that Mangum lied on the Duke students persisted among the public following the case.
Recently, from behind bars, she finally gave the truth about the rape accusations in a tell-all interview with Let’s Talk With Kat.
“[I] made up a story that wasn’t true,” she said. “[The Duke students] trusted me that I wouldn’t betray their trust, and I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong.”
She followed by saying she also betrayed the trust of everyone else who believed in her testimony. The reasoning behind lying, she said, was because she wanted validation from people and not from God.
“God already loved me for who I was. I didn’t need to seek validation because I already had validation from Him. I just didn’t know it,” she told interviewer Katerena.
Among other topics of discussion, she talked about why she chose to be an exotic dancer, growing closer to God and what foods she wants to have again after her prison release. She’s served 14 years of her 18-year prison sentence so far. Even after all the years that passed, she hopes the three men could forgive her for what she put them through.
“I hurt my brothers,” she said, calling the former students “brothers” in the biblical sense. “I hope they can forgive me and I want them to know that I love them and that they didn’t deserve that.”