False accusations can have life-altering consequences, especially when they involve sexual misconduct.
In Texas, these allegations are taken seriously, requiring a strong sex crime defense to protect the rights of the accused. A seasoned Houston sex crime attorney can be instrumental in crafting an effective criminal defense strategy, ensuring that clients receive fair treatment under the law.
Now, let’s take a closer look at a high-profile case in which the alleged Duke rape victim admits her claims were false, shedding new light on a controversial story from years past.
The woman who years ago accused 3 men’s lacrosse players at Duke University of raping her now admits that she lied and the sex crimes did not happen.
According to a report by CNN, Crystal Mangum, a former exotic dancer who made the notorious accusations against the students in 2006, now says that she “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.”
She reportedly admitted to making the false sex crime allegations during an interview on the web show Let’s Talk with Kat hosted by former model Katerena DePasquale.
Mangum made the admission at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, where she is serving a 14- to 18-year sentence for a 2013 second-degree murder conviction for stabbing her ex-boyfriend in 2011. She insists that she acted in self-defense in the stabbing because he beat her.
As for the Duke case, “I made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God,” Mangum said. “I want them [the 3 men she’d accused] to know that I love them, and they didn’t deserve that, and I hope that they can forgive me.”
According to USA Today, Mangum said in the interview that she now “reads the Bible” in prison, and she described her time in prison as “growth.”
But her admission of lying and her apology came almost two decades late—long after former Duke lacrosse players David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann faced a national furor over her false claim.
All 3 men were arrested and charged after Mangum alleged that they had sexually assaulted her at a party on March 13, 2006. In the face of fierce media focus, the remainder of the lacrosse team’s 2006 season was canceled, and Duke men’s lacrosse coach Mike Pressler lost his job.
Justice finally was served
However, her story claiming that she was raped became murky, according to media reports at the time. And in April of 2007, the state’s then-attorney general, Roy Cooper, who later served as governor of North Carolina for 8 years, reviewed the case and exonerated the 3 men.
Cooper said the charges never should have been brought against them. The charges were then dropped. But damages had been done, and civil lawsuits followed.
The 3 men reached an undisclosed settlement with Duke University for damages, and the city of Durham, North Carolina, where Duke University is located, also settled a lawsuit by them. As part of that settlement, the city paid $50,000 to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.
In addition, the district attorney on the case was convicted of criminal contempt and was disbarred.
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False claims of sex crimes are not rare
All this is not to say that allegations of rape should not be taken seriously. But the fact is, false claims of sex crimes are not rare or unusual.
In fact, in this era of the #MeToo movement, which encourages women to speak out about sex crimes against them, even years after the fact, some innocent men have been branded as criminals in the court of public opinion and have faced severe legal consequences when they did nothing wrong.
This begs the question of why some people falsely report domestic violence or sex crimes.
Sometimes, a false claim of family violence may be made by one parent against the other to turn a child against that parent or to gain leverage in a custody battle during a divorce. Or a person may be vindictive toward a spouse, ex-spouse, partner, or ex-partner and desire to take revenge by claiming a crime was committed.
Such claims can take the form of exaggerations or outright lies. But police must take them seriously, which means that a falsely accused person may be quickly arrested and charged.
That, in itself, can lead to the immediate loss of a job and loss of community standing while possible criminal penalties such as imprisonment loom. In Texas, sex crime penalties can be particularly harsh, including many years in prison and high fines.
High-profile false claims bring notoriety
Among high-profile false accusations of sex crimes that initially brought heightened notoriety and did considerable damage was the 2018 case of TV host and comedian Chris Hardwick, often seen hosting talk shows after episodes of The Walking Dead on AMC.
His ex-girlfriend, actress Chloe Dykstra, wrote a thinly veiled essay to claim that an unnamed ex had sexually assaulted her. Hardwick was quickly singled out as the perpetrator, having been the actress’s boyfriend from 2011 to 2014.
Hardwick denied the accusations, but his show Talking With Chris Hardwick was abruptly canceled by AMC, and Nerdist, a company he founded, removed every reference to him from its website.
It was only later that Hardwick was exonerated and reinstated professionally when it was revealed that his accuser had repeatedly declared her love for him and pleaded with him to reunite after he ended the relationship because he caught her cheating.
As the New York Post wrote at the time, “The takedown of Chris Hardwick shows the #MeToo movement has gone too far.”
What can you do if falsely accused of a sex crime?
If you or a loved one in the Houston area has been falsely accused of a sex crime, what can you do?
First, you must engage an experienced, knowledgeable, and skilled Houston sex crimes defense lawyer or attorney to protect your legal rights.
Houston’s Neal Davis Law Firm has a lengthy track record of defending those who have been wrongly accused of sexual assault.
We believe in every person’s constitutional right to due process and having their day in court, and we support the American legal standard that an accused person must be considered innocent until or unless proven guilty.
Indeed, our law firm has successfully handled many cases involving false claims of sex crimes and has prevented these criminal charges from proceeding. That may mean fighting to get a charge dropped or dismissed by negotiating with prosecutors before a case goes to trial, or if it does go to trial, it can mean mounting an aggressive defense in court.
“False allegations of sex crimes are a serious matter that can ruin someone’s life,” Davis says. “Such false accusations are common in today’s society, and persons who face them need a strong legal defense.”
