‘I made up a story that wasn’t true’: Why did Crystal Mangum lie about being assaulted by three Duke lacrosse players in 2006?

Content warning: This article describes physical and sexual assault. Please take care while reading.

Crystal Mangum, who accused three Duke University lacrosse players of sexual assault in 2006, has admitted she lied to the public and under oath and apologized to the three men she accused in a recent Let’s Talk with Kat podcast episode hosted by Katerena DePasquale.

The interview was taped at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where Mangum is serving time on a 2013 second-degree murder conviction for stabbing and killing her boyfriend, which Mangum says happened in self-defense, the Duke Chronicle reported that year.

Amid a massive controversy causing the 2006 Duke lacrosse season to be canceled and the coach to be fired, the university and the three men Mangum accused settled out of court.

In the Depasquale episode, Mangum admitted, “I made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.” She added, “I want them to know that I love them, and they didn’t deserve that, and I hope that they can forgive me.”

Mangum had previously written in her 2008 memoir, Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story, “I will never say that nothing at all happened that night,” and then described the graphic incident.

However, Mangum’s details of what she said happened that night have been inconsistent, and in 2007, then-N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, now governor of the state, declared the men innocent. But Cooper told CNN he would not prosecute Mangum for perjury.

“Our investigators who talked with her and the attorneys who talked with her over a period of time think that she may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling,” Cooper said.

In 2008, Mangum stood by what she said happened, speaking publically. “My only intentions were for justice, and I wanted justice for myself,” she said.

The 2006 party accusations

In 2006, Mangum was an adult entertainer working in Durham, NC, where Duke is located, hired with other women to perform at a university-owned house where three lacrosse players, David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann, lived. Mangum alleged she was brutally physically and sexually assaulted for 30 minutes by three lacrosse team members.

The case grabbed headlines nationwide, and many in Durham and around the country believed Mangum’s story and criticized Duke’s response to the alleged attack in a scandal reaching the highest levels of state government.

Finnerty, Seligmann, and Evans settled for an undisclosed amount, and the case was dropped. The three men were never linked to the crime through DNA evidence, and they were later declared innocent. Since then, the three men have pursued litigation to once and for all clear their names.

“It’s been on my heart to do a public apology”

According to the Duke Chronicle, Let’s Talk with Kat host Kat DePasquale told the outlet, “When we met and were about to begin the interview, she made it clear that all she wanted to do is to apologize. It felt like this apology was something she needed to get off her chest.”

In the Talk with Kat episode, Mangum says, “It’s been on my heart to do a public apology … I hope that [the accused lacrosse players] can heal and trust God and know that God loves them and that God is loving them through me, letting them know that they’re valuable.” Adding, “[They] didn’t deserve the accusations.”

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.