Crystal Mangum says she falsely accused Duke lacrosse players of rape in 2006, asks for forgiveness

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Durham woman who falsely claimed three Duke men's lacrosse team members raped her in 2006, is now admitting she made it up.

Crystal Mangum, made her confession at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women during a podcast interview with "Let's Talk with Kat."

Mangum, who is Black and was a North Carolina Central University student at the time, said she "made up a story that wasn't true" about the White players who attended a party where she was hired to perform as a stripper "because I wanted validation from people and not from God."

"I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn't, and that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me," Mangum told host Katerena DePasquale during the interview.

In 2006, Mangum's false claims against the Duke players made national headlines and caused division along racial lines in Durham. The players were declared innocent after Mangum's story crumbled and her mental stability was questioned.

The case sparked outrage from the Durham community and students and faculty at Duke University and was covered as a top story locally and throughout the country.

You had that racial element and when you mix in the assault piece and supposedly rape, makes it even more of a case," said Bill Bell, who was mayor of Durham at the time.

The state attorney general's office concluded there was no credible evidence an attack ever occurred, and its investigation found no DNA, witness or other evidence to confirm Mangum's story.

"As Attorney General, the governor took over this case from the local prosecutor, conducted a thorough reinvestigation to find the truth, dismissed the charges and publicly declared the players innocent of the alleged crimes," said a spokesman for Gov. Roy Cooper, who was then the state's attorney general.

Cooper said he believed the student-athletes were innocent all along.

"It was important for me to take that case from the local prosecutor, do an investigation to find the real truth," Cooper said. "It is why I dismissed the charges and took the extra step of declaring those players innocent of those alleged crimes."

Mike Nifong, the Durham prosecutor who championed Mangum's case was disbarred for lying and misconduct. Prosecutors at the time declined to press charges against Mangum for the false accusations.

In 2007, all charges against the men were dropped.

Defense lawyer Joseph Cheshire represented the Duke players in the case. In a statement to ABC11, Cheshire said:

"I am extremely pleased that Crystal Mangum finally decided to tell the truth. For those of us that were involved in the Duke lacrosse case, there was never a question as to the innocence of these young men. It was a travesty of justice caused by one prosecutor's corrupt effort to win an election at the expense of three innocent people. Prosecutorial misconduct can have a devastating impact on the administration of justice by causing wrongful convictions of innocent people and must be carefully guarded against. Although Ms. Mangum's admission is long overdue, it does put the final layer of validation on the unequivocal innocence of these three fine men."

Mangum said in the podcast interview that she hopes the three falsely accused men can forgive her.

"I want them to know that I love them and they didn't deserve that," she said.

Durham-based podcaster DePasquale said she wrote to Mangum because she was curious about the case that got so much attention, and that Mangum wrote back saying she wanted to talk.

The interview was recorded in November at the correctional center, where Mangum is serving time for stabbing to death her boyfriend in 2011.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.