‘Enormous path of destruction’: Attorney reacts to confession about Duke lacrosse team case

CHARLOTTE — The Duke lacrosse team case was one of the biggest sports scandals in state history before it blew up on a pile of lies.

Crystal Mangum said she was raped by three lacrosse players at a party. In March of 2006, the members of the Duke lacrosse team faced scrutiny and criminal proceedings.

In a podcast, Mangum finally confessed and admitted she was lying.

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“I hope that they can forgive me and I want them to know that I love them and they didn’t deserve that,” Mangum said.

Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans ended up getting charged.

“Everybody assumes they are guilty. There is not a presumption of innocence, there is a presumption of guilt,” said James Cooney, who represented Seligman.

Cooney told Channel 9′s Glenn Counts the early days of the case were challenging.

“Well obviously we’d known all along she was lying, in some sense it’s nice to see her let the public know,” Cooney said.

The charges were dropped against all three men and then-Attorney General Roy Cooper declared them innocent. The prosecutor in the case, Mike Nifong, was disbarred and jailed.

Eighteen years later, Mangum says she turned to God and apologized.

“They were my brothers and they trusted me that I wouldn’t betray their trust and I testified falsely against them by saying they raped me when they didn’t and that was wrong,” Mangum said on the “Let’s Talk With Kat” podcast.

Cooney watched the interview and believed Mangum is being sincere.

“There was just this enormous path of destruction. I think she’s beginning to realize kind of the enormity of what she caused,” Cooney told Counts.

Mangum has been in prison for 12 years after she was convicted of second-degree murder for killing her boyfriend. She could be released in two to five years.

As for Seligman, his attorney says he’s overcome the trauma from the case.

“Well, Reade is doing great as I knew he would. He graduated from Emory Law School and is a successful practicing litigator, married, has a family,” Cooney said.

Duke settled a lawsuit with the three players.

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