Raleigh, North Carolina. For the first time, the woman who made national news in 2006 by falsely accusing three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her—a narrative that sparked tensions over race, class, and college athletes’ privilege—has acknowledged in public that she made it up.
In an interview with the Let’s Talk with Kat podcast, Black woman Crystal Mangum claimed that she made up a tale about the white players at a party where she was hired as a stripper because she desired approval from others rather than from God.
Mangum, 46, stated in the interview, which was made public on Monday, “I gave false testimony against them by claiming that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong.” Recorded last month, the conversation took place at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where Mangum is being held after killing her partner with a knife in 2011.
When Mangum’s claim collapsed under legal examination in 2007, the former Duke athletes were found not guilty.
Following an investigation that turned up no DNA, witness, or other evidence to support Mangum’s account, the state attorney general’s office came to the conclusion that there was no reliable proof an attack had ever taken place.
For lying and other wrongdoing, the Durham prosecutor who supported Mangum’s case was disbarred. At the time, prosecutors decided not to charge Mangum with the unfounded allegations.
After suing Duke University for handling the rape claims, the former lacrosse players negotiated an undisclosed deal with the university in 2007.
“I hope the three falsely accused men can forgive me,” Mangum, who was found guilty of second-degree murder in 2013 and might be released from jail as early as 2026, said the podcast interviewer.
She remarked, “I want them to know that they are loved and that they didn’t deserve that.”
According to Kat DePasquale, a podcaster from Durham, she wrote to Mangum because she was interested in the case that received so much attention, and Mangum replied that she wanted to speak.
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