Duke Lacrosse Case Book Author Recalls Emotional Interview with Falsely Accused Player After Accuser Admits Lie

Duke Lacrosse Case Book Author Recalls Emotional Interview with Falsely Accused Player After Accuser Admits Lie https://ift.tt/wUSKW38

Crystal Mangum has admitted that she made up the rape allegations against the three men

Sara D. Davis/Getty

Duke lacrosse player David Evans, 23-years-old, proclaims his innocence as he addresses the media outside the Durham County Detention Center after being indicted on sexual assault charges on May 15, 2006 in Durham, North Carolina.

After a woman's admission that she fabricated rape allegations against three Duke University lacrosse players in 2006, the author of a bestselling book on the case recounted an interview with one of the falsely accused men, who worried he'd wear a scarlet letter from the incident for the rest of his life.

Speaking with PEOPLE, Don Yaeger, co-author of the 2008 bestseller It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered, noted an interview he conducted with one of the accused students, Dave Evans, who feared that he would be remembered for the unfounded allegations of Crystal Mangum not only after being acquitted, but all the way until his death and even afterwards.

"The last chapter of my book, I had an interview with one of the three young men," Yaeger recalls, noting the charges had already been dropped by then.

"The young man looked at me and he says, 'You know Don, it doesn't matter what I achieve in my life, it doesn't matter where I go in my career. When I die, it will say Dave Evans, one of the three players accused of raping an adult dancer while at Duke playing lacrosse. That's the way my obituary will open,'" Yaeger recalled of Evans. "That's the penalty."

In a podcast appearance recorded in November, Mangum admitted that she had made up the rape accusations she'd made in 2006 against three members of the Duke Blue Devils lacrosse team: Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann.

Related: Woman Admits She Lied About Duke Lacrosse Players Raping Her Nearly 20 Years Ago: 'I Made Up a Story'

"I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn't," Mangum told Katerena DePasquale of the Let's Talk with Kat podcast. "And that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. 

Mangum, 46, accused the trio of raping her at a party where she had been hired to perform striptease in March 2006.

AP Photo/Sara D. Davis

Despite concerns over her credibility as an accuser, the local District Attorney, Mike Nifong, charged the three with rape. The charges were later dismissed and Nifong was disbarred.

Mangum would later be convicted and imprisoned in the murder of her boyfriend Reginald Daye. She is eligible to be released from prison in 2026.

Yaeger questioned why Mangum had not come forward earlier or sent apologies directly to the three former lacrosse players, long after her allegations were discredited.

"I'm all for people seeking redemption in their life," said Yaeger. "But the challenge I have is that, if she's been sitting there for 12 years and she came to this conclusion that she needed to apologize and acknowledge the damage she caused to so many other people, it's kind of odd that she didn't ever sit down and write a note to anybody."