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Crystal Mangum is ready to apologize.
Nearly 20 years after the former exotic dancer accused Duke University lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans of rape in 2006, she publicly admitted, for the first time, that she lied about the allegations.
During an interview held from the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women—where she is currently serving an unrelated sentence for second-degree murder of her then-boyfriend in 2013, per NBC News—Mangum set the record straight.
“That night, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans, they took me into their home and they trusted,” she told Katerena DePasquale, host of the Let’s Talk With Kat podcast in the Dec. 11 episode. “The Bible says that you shouldn’t do harm to your neighbor that lives trustingly beside you, and they were my brothers and 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.”
She added, “And that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me, and made up a story that wasn't true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
The now-46-year-old, who was 28 when she made the allegations, expressed her hopes that Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans can forgive her.
“I want them to know that I love them,” Mangum added, “and they didn’t deserve that. And I hope they can forgive me. I hope they can heal and trust God and know that God loves them.”
E! News has reached out to Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans for comment but has not yet heard back.
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In 2006, while a student at North Carolina Central University, Mangum told police she was attacked by three men—then aged between 19 and 23—in the bathroom during a Duke lacrosse party where she’d been hired to perform, according to People’s reporting at the time, citing court records.
Mangum told police, per local outlet WRAL, citing court records, that the three men had raped, sodomized, and beaten her over a thirty-minute period.
While Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans were each charged with multiple crimes at the time, including rape, Mangum’s claim was eventually debunked and the players declared innocent in part due to the nonexistence of DNA evidence on Mangum’s body.
Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Then-North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper—now the state’s governor—did not prosecute Mangum for perjury, telling reporters at the time it was due to the belief of investigators that “she may have actually believed the many different stories that she has been telling.”
Now, almost two decades later, Mangum says she doesn’t have regrets.
“Everything happens to get everybody to the point where they are,” she said. “And it's all to show God's love and His forgiveness, His grace and His mercy.”
(NBC News and E! News are both part of NBCUniversal.)
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