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A former stripper’s shocking confession that she lied about being raped comes too late for legal recourse.

Years after accusing three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her at a party, convicted murderer Crystal Mangum admitted Thursday that she “made up a story that wasn’t true.”

The now-46-year-old made the confession in an interview at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women where she is serving a 14- to 18-year prison sentence in part for the second-degree murder of her boyfriend in 2013.

Mangum hoped the young men she falsely accused in 2006 could forgive her. But former players David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann have no way of holding her accountable for lying under oath at the time because North Carolina’s statute of limitations on perjury charges is only two years.

(Video Credit: WRAL)

“They 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,” Mangum told the Let’s Talk With Kat podcast.

“[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,” she stated in referring to the three young men who were exonerated in 2007 by then-Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Mangum’s admission, the first time she has publicly admitted it was a lie, comes nearly two decades after she made the allegations in a case that ignited national headlines.

According to WRAL:

In 2006, Mangum accused the three men of sexually assaulting and raping her after they trapped her inside a bathroom at a house near Duke’s east campus. According to court records, Mangum initially told Durham police that she was raped, sodomized and beaten for a 30-minute period during the early-morning hours of March 14 in a bathroom of a home on Buchanan Boulevard, where she performed as an exotic dancer. The house has since been torn down.

Even as the investigation into the claims was unfolding, then-Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong pursued charges of first-degree rape, kidnapping and sexual assault against the three players.

The team’s 2006 season was canceled in the aftermath and then-coach Mike Pressler – who had been with the university for 16 seasons – lost his job.

Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong declared at the time that “there’s no doubt a sexual assault took place” and that it was “racially motivated.”

“The information that I have does lead me to conclude that a rape did occur,” Nifong said in an interview at the time. “The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done. It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so.”

He was later convicted of criminal contempt and disbarred for withholding DNA evidence that would ultimately clear the students.

Katerena DePasquale, the podcast host who interviewed Mangum, revealed to The Chronicle that the former exotic dancer wrote that she wanted to do a “public apology.”

“It’s been on my heart to do a public apology concerning the Duke lacrosse case,” she reportedly wrote to DePasquale in a letter obtained by The Chronicle. “I actually lied about the incident to the public, my family, my friends, and to God about it, and I’m not proud about it.”

“When we met and were about to begin the interview, she made it clear that all she wanted to do is to apologize,” DePasquale explained to the outlet. “It felt like this apology was something she needed to get off her chest.”

Mangum got her message out in the interview.

“I hope that [the 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,” she said.

Frieda Powers
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