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Karried
04-11-2007, 06:56 PM
I started thinking about this today.. I wonder if the timing of this announcement had anything to do with the Imus fiasco? Am I over analyzing this or could there be some predetermined 'method to this madness' .. it just seems pretty calculated to me.

This is so upsetting and actually really frightening:

FOXNews.com - Crystal Gail Mangum: Profile of the Duke Rape Accuser - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265374,00.html)[/URL]


Some of the details of the Duke University rape case may never be solved, but one thing is startlingly clear: Crystal Gail Mangum, the woman who accused three college lacrosse players of locking her in a bathroom and raping her, has had a very troubled life.

Mangum has been identified by name publicly several times, including by lawyers during press conferences on the case.
According to North Carolina Department of Corrections records, she was born on July 18, 1978, to a truck driver. She grew up the youngest of three children, not far from the house where she claimed she was assaulted in 2006. Durham is a slow-paced Southern town with equally large populations of black and white residents and a history of racial tensions — including those between a wealthy, predominantly white university community and its poorer black neighbors.

In 1993, when she was 14 years old, Mangum claimed to have been kidnapped by three men, driven to a house in Creedmoor, N.C., 15 miles away from Durham, and raped. She said one of the men was her boyfriend at the time, and was a physically and emotionally abusive man seven years older than she was. Creedmoor Police Chief Ted Pollard said Mangum filed a report on the incident in Aug. 18, 1996, three years after the rapes allegedly took place. The case, however, was not pursued, because the accuser backed away from the charges out of fear for her life, according to her relatives.
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Family members still disagree on what really happened in 1993. The accuser's father has said he believes his daughter was not raped or injured in that incident, while her mother has said a rape involving three men in Creedmoor did occur, but said it happened when her daughter was 17 or 18; Mangum's ex-husband, Kenneth Nathanial McNeill, has said he believes the 1993 rape accusations are true.

According to her father, the year after the alleged Creedmoor rape, Mangum saw a psychiatrist and took prescription medication for a year because trauma from the assault had left her suicidal.
After Mangum graduated from high school in 1996, McNeill, then her fiance, encouraged her to join the Navy because she wanted to "see the world," he told various news outlets. She began her two-year active duty in the summer of 1997, marrying McNeill, who is 14 years her senior, in the fall of that year. She was trained to operate radios in Virginia, then the couple drove out to California where she was stationed on an ammunition ship. But she was frequently at sea, leading to ruptures in the marriage. On June 16, 1998, she accused her husband of taking her into a wooded area and threatening to kill her, which he has denied doing. When she failed to appear at a court hearing, the complaint was dismissed. The two separated after 17 months of marriage, and that same year, Mangum was discharged from the Navy, pregnant by a sailor she has begun a relationship with. That man would have another child with her as well, but that relationship wouldn't last.

By 2002, Mangum seems to have given up her dreams of seeing the world. She was back in her hometown, trying to get a job as a stripper. In June 2002, she was arrested on a multitude of charges while working at a topless dance club called Diamond Girls. According to police, she removed a customer's keys to his taxicab while giving him a lap dance, then stole the taxi while he was in the bathroom. Police chased her at speeds up to 70 miles per hour — frequently in the wrong lane — and when an officer tried to approach her, she barely missed running him over, and struck his patrol car instead. She tried to escape again, but a flat tire ended the second leg of her getaway. Finally in custody, she was found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.19 (the state limit is 0.08). While being questioned, Mangum passed out and was taken to a hospital.
In the end, Mangum had racked up 10 charges, including driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license (her license has been suspended three times), eluding police, reckless driving, failure to heed a siren and lights, assault on an officer and larceny of a motor vehicle. In 2003, she pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors: larceny, speeding to elude arrest, assault on a government official and DWI. She served three weekends in jail, was placed on two years' probation and paid $4,200 in restitution and court fees.

But the portrait of an out-of-control, unstable woman with a drinking problem isn't accurate, according to relatives, who have described Mangum as a hardworking single mom running herself ragged trying to support her children and improve her life. In 2004, she earned an associate's degree from Durham Technical Community College. At the time of the Duke lacrosse rape allegations, she was in her second year as a full-time student at North Carolina Central University, studying police psychology and maintaining a 3.0 average. She had at some point held jobs working at a nursing facility and at a $10.50-an-hour assembly-line job making catalytic reducers.

But it wasn't a happy life.

Sometime in the last two years, according to her parents, Mangum suffered a mental breakdown and was taken to a hospital in Raleigh. They said they didn't know what caused the breakdown but said she felt burdened by mounting debts. In 2003, she went to court to force the father of her children to pay child support (the court sided with her and ordered $400 from his monthly paycheck to go to child support). In 2006, Mangum was working as a stripper in at least one club and for one service. She was adamant that she never worked as a prostitute, and told police that in only one instance did she have sex with a customer, a man she thought was "nice." According to employees of clubs she worked at, she was known as a problem dancer, frequently clashing with customers and other dancers and often passing out. At least one of the club workers, however, said he never saw Mangum drink while working.

As time went on, her romantic life didn't get more stable, either. According to reports, Mangum said she'd had sex with at least three men in the days leading up to the Duke lacrosse incident, including her boyfriend and two of the men who drove her to dancing gigs. Somewhere around this time, she again became pregnant. She gave birth to a premature girl in January 2007.
But the greatest upheaval in Mangum's life was to come on March 13, 2006. That's when she and 31-year-old Kim Roberts were hired to perform a striptease at the off-campus lacrosse house on North Buchanan Blvd. near Duke.

Now that all charges against the three players she accused have been dropped, it remains to be seen whether Mangum herself will be the target of any legal retribution on behalf of the players' families.

It's just so hard to know what really happened but based on the above... hmmmmmm and a few other things, I'm thinking these boys had their lives pretty much ruined by this woman ... I think she needs to be prosecuted.

PUGalicious
04-12-2007, 03:49 AM
I started thinking about this today.. I wonder if the timing of this announcement had anything to do with the Imus fiasco? Am I over analyzing this or could there be some predetermined 'method to this madness' .. it just seems pretty calculated to me.
I can't believe that either has anything to do with the other — timing or otherwise.

MadMonk
04-12-2007, 09:13 AM
I wonder if the Duke University staff that signed that condemnation even before these guys had their day in court will apologize since the state publicly announced that they were not just "not convicted", but "innocent".

The damage, however, has been done. Nothing will give those young men back the 13 months of their lives that they spent fighting lies, innuendo and criminal behavior on the part of Nifong. They have their freedom back, but where do they go to get back their reputations, their good names, the time and money spent fighting baseless charges?

BailJumper
04-14-2007, 10:27 PM
Newspaper headlines Should now read "Nifong Rapes 3 Duke Lacrosse Players!"

(credit to SNL)

BaconCheeseburgerDeluxe
04-14-2007, 10:43 PM
I know if I was among them I would be filing a lawsuit on every news outlet in the state of North Carolina, and every media outlet that put my good name in the toilet. I would find the most evil lawyer in all the land.

The media needs to held accountable for this. For years the media has exposed other businesses for doing harm to average citizens. It is time the tables were turned on them to where they have to pay out a hefty law suit for their wrong doing. Just like every other industry has had to pay for their mistakes and wrong doing.

The media needs to get out of the business of jumping to conclusions. When it comes to court cases the only thing they should be allowed to report are the facts of the trial. No expert opinions, no biased reporting, no editorials until the trial is completed.

I hate to say this but we probably have innocent people in prison. Simply because the media tainted the jury pool long before the defendant ever set foot in the court room for the trial.

BailJumper
04-14-2007, 10:53 PM
Good luck with that. There are many laws that protect what the media reports (even if they get it wrong).

Anybody remember when a local TV news station wrongly ran a story and identified a woman in some sort of sex crime (if I am remembering correctly) and showed her photo. Well, it turned out to be a different woman. They ran an "oops we goofed." The woman sued and lost.

BaconCheeseburgerDeluxe
04-14-2007, 11:15 PM
Good luck with that. There are many laws that protect what the media reports (even if they get it wrong).

Anybody remember when a local TV news station wrongly ran a story and identified a woman in some sort of sex crime (if I am remembering correctly) and showed her photo. Well, it turned out to be a different woman. They ran an "oops we goofed." The woman sued and lost.


The reason why she did not win was proably because she could not prove she suffered an actual loss. The loss has to be more than embarassment. These duke players could argue that their abilty to get a good job and abilty to maintain a job has been hindered. It is hard to shake rape accusation even if you have been cleared. Someone out there will always think you did it and got away with it. Although the court system has cleared you.

BailJumper
04-14-2007, 11:23 PM
It wasn't that she was cleared. It was that the news screwed up and ID'd the wrong person. The person ID'd was never wanted by the police.

In case of the media you would have to first prove they knew the information to be false and/or it was done with malicious intent.

The courts tend to go with, it is better the media make a mistake or two than to stifle their ability to report.

jbrown84
04-16-2007, 06:48 PM
Newspaper headlines Should now read "Nifong Rapes 3 Duke Lacrosse Players!"

(credit to SNL)

Yeah, I saw that. That was a good one.


Okay, speaking of this. I saw where O'Reilly was on vacation and this asian woman named Michelle Malkin (whom I've never heard of) was subbing for him and this black guy Malik Shabazz was on there and called her a "political prostitue" for O'Reilly. So she snaps back that he's "the only whore on this split screen" and he should be ashamed of himself for profiting off his "racial poison".

This Imus thing really has flared up some tensions.