The curious case of Crystal Gail Mangum has spanned the last five years. Now, the one time victim has become the criminal. Mangum worked as a stripper, dancer and escort. On the night on March 13, 2006 she, along with another dancer, Kim Roberts, was hired to perform for the members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team.
As the party raged on, the players consumed alcohol and asked Mangum and Roberts why the agency didn’t send white women. Angered by their question, a heated exchange took place between the dancers and the lacrosse players, leading them to relieve Mangum and her dancing partner of their duties. The argument reached its climax when Mangum left the party and one of the lacrosse players shouted, “We asked for whites, not niggers.”
That was the extent of the events at the party. Later, Roberts and Mangum began to argue, which lead to Roberts calling the police on Mangum.
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The police then took Mangum to the Durham Access Center and during the admission process, Mangum claimed that she had been raped earlier in the evening.
On April 18, 2006, two members of the lacrosse team, Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade Seligmann, 20, were arrested, indicted and charged with first degree forcible rape, first degree sexual offense and kidnapping. At the same time, search warrants were ordered on Finnerty and Seligmann’s dorm rooms.
The rape case of Mangum fell apart when her credibility came into question. In June of 2006, Mangum’s case began to unravel.
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Durham police said that Mangum kept changing her story and was not credible. Mangum repeatedly told investigators she was raped by 20 white men, later reducing the number to only three.
Kim Roberts said that Mangum was not raped and Mangum chooses different defendants in the police photo lineups.
Mangum gave at least five different versions of the incident to police and medical interviewers by August 2006.
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Every account of Mangum trying to place an accuser at the scene of the alleged rape was dissolved by phone records, witness accounts, time frames and DNA evidence. Almost a year later on April 11, 2007, the attorney general dropped all the charges and declared the players innocent.
A checkered past revealed that Mangum was in trouble with the law as far back as 2002 for stealing a cab from a strip club where she had been working.
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The rape case and the aftermath trouble followed Mangum. In February of 2010, police were called to Mangum’s residence. When they arrived, Mangum and her live-in boyfriend were fighting. Mangum had set fire to his clothing in a bathtub in their presence. They charged Mangum with attempted murder, first-degree arson, assault and battery, identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting an officer and misdemeanor child abuse.
On December 17, 2010, Mangum was convicted of five misdemeanor charges involving child abuse and served 88 days in jail.
As of April 2011, Mangum stabbed and seriously injured her boyfriend. She was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious bodily injury, her boyfriend later died in the hospital and Mangum was indicted on a murder charge.
As of April 19, Mangum is being held in jail under a $300,000.
The case of Mangum is filled with rape, murder, false accusations and sadness. Once thought to be a victim, Mangum’s life is now plagued with sex, lies and violence.
