Crystal Gail Mangum, did you take notice? A development in the District of Columbia on June 16, 2006 is the best news for you since that humorless email from a Duke lacrosse player (NOT one of the three you falsely accused) was made public: A grand jury declined to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney in connection with a recent incident, with respect to which she admitted hitting a police officer who tried to stop her from entering a House office building without walking through a metal detector, or wearing the lapel pin that identifies members of Congress.
Crystal, there's a life-changing lesson there for you to learn, if you are willing. Rep. McKinney, a controversial black Democrat from Georgia, was in big trouble, but managed to avoid indictment. How? She stopped playing the race card and apologized. Initially, Rep. McKinney described the encounter as "racial profiling" and insisted that she had been assaulted and had done nothing wrong.
Rep. McKinney's charge that the officer (who was white) had assaulted her received little public support, even within the Congressional Black Caucus. Insightful members of the Congressional Black Caucus privately urged Rep. McKinney to smarten up, and she went to the House floor the next day to apologize: "I am sorry that this misunderstanding happened at all, and I regret its escalation, and I apologize. There should not have been any physical contact in this incident."
Crystal, these days thoroughly discrediting you is as easy as picking low-hanging fruit. So, for everyone's sake, please put an end to the deplorable criminal prosecutions of three wrongly accused young men -- who were indicted by a district attorney desperate for black votes to win a Democrat primary -- based on misleading evidence and the unconfirmed claim of a person without credibility (that's you, Crystal).
No Duke lacrosse player assaulted you, much less kidnapped and raped you. The sooner you acknowledge it, the better. The DNA evidence does not support your claim that any of the three indicted raped you.
If you HAVE to file a civil suit, perhaps that vibrator was defective!
Crystal, radio show host Tom Leykis identified you on his nationally syndicated radio show last April 21, 2006.
The families of the three whom you accused were not about to let you and a shameful prosecutor destroy the lives of their children. And they could afford to hire attorneys, investigators and experts to uncover the truth.
That's the problem with picking deep-pocket targets!
Crystal, you HAVE done some honorable things.
For example, you joined the Navy in the fall of 1996 - signing up for an eight-year enlistment -- two years of active duty followed by six years in the reserves.
But your personal life has been problematic. You married a man 14 years your senior in 1997, but he did not know how to read and write until you taught him (good for you), and the marriage lasted only seventeen months.
You then took up with another man (the father of your two children). You've had to go to court to seek child support. In 2003, the children's father was ordered by a Durham court to have a portion of his paycheck (about $400 a month) withheld for child support, court records show. He was also ordered to pay more than $2,700 in public assistance to the children.
You have worked at a nursing facility and on an assembly line making catalytic reducers at $10.50 per hour.
The pressures of a hard life periodically seem to have gotten the better of you, however.
You were arrested in June 2002 after you got drunk, stole a car at a strip club, and led police on a reckless high-speed chase. That incident resulted in the following charges:
- Felonious Assault with a Deadly Weapon on Police Officer, O2-CRS-49961
- Felonious Larceny and Felonious Possession of Stolen Vehicle charges, 02-CRS-49955
- Felonious Speeding to Elude Arrest, Driving while Impaired (.19 Blood Alcohol Content) and Driving while License Revoked, 02-CRS-49956
- Driving Left of Center, 02-CR-49958
- Failure to Heed Blue Light and Siren and Reckless Driving in Wanton Disregard to Rights or Safety of Others, 02-CR-49959
- Driving the Wrong Way on Dual Lane Highway and Open Container After Consuming Alcohol, 02-CR-49960
- Two counts of Injury to Personal Property, 02-CR-49962-63
- Resisting a Public Officer, 02-CR-49964
You pled guilty to four misdemeanors in May 2003: speeding to elude arrest, assault against a government official, DWI level 3, and larceny.
You were lucky to make that plea bargain.
A report of this incident is riveting and revealing:
"The incident began at a topless dance club [Diamond Girls] while the woman was performing for a taxi driver, [Sgt. T.H] McCrae wrote.
"'As she was feeling him up and putting her hands in his pockets, she removed the keys to his taxi cab, without him knowing,' the officer said. 'He [the cabbie] told her he would drive her home, but needed to go to the restroom first. While in the restroom, he was advised that she was driving off in his taxi cab.'
"McCrae said he chased the woman at speeds up to 70 mph in a 55-mph zone until she finally stopped.
"'As I began to approach the vehicle she put it in drive and drove towards me,' McCrae added. 'I jumped out of the way to the right and she missed me. The suspect then struck the right rear quarter of my patrol vehicle.'
"Another chase ensued, but the woman finally was apprehended after having a flat tire, according to McCrae.
"The officer said she registered a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.19 on a portable sensing device -- more than double North Carolina's 0.08 legal threshold for impairment.
"And while being questioned, the dancer 'passed out and was unresponsive,' McCrae said.
"She was taken to the emergency room at Duke University Hospital, McCrae's report indicated."
The more things change, the more they remain the same?
Crystal, now that the vibrator information is public, your case is flatter than that taxi cab's flat tire.
Cut your losses.
A further report on the incident:
"The episode started at the Diamond Girls club on Angier Avenue in Durham. According to Larry W. Jones, the owner of Diamond Girls, the woman appeared at the club that night and 'tried out' giving lap dances to a few men.
"Jones said the manager at the time did not offer the woman a job because she was 'acting funny.'
"She started dancing for a taxi driver, whom she asked for a ride, according to a report from the Durham County Sheriff's Office. While dancing, she took the keys from the driver's pocket without his knowledge and, minutes later, drove off in his taxi.
"The cab driver called 911 and a sheriff's deputy responded and saw the blue 1992 Chevrolet Caprice heading east on Angier Avenue near Page Road. The headlights were off and the woman was driving on the wrong side of the road, according to the deputy's report.
"The woman sped up to pass the officer, and he began to chase the taxi, which ran a stop sign and veered across the road, weaving across a grass median, onto the shoulder and back. The car sped from Angier Avenue onto U.S. 70, the report said.
"According to the report, the woman drove down the center of the highway, a 55 mph zone, at 70 mph, heading into Raleigh. She kept speeding, drove the wrong way down Brier Creek Parkway and turned into a dead end, where she tried to drive the taxi through a fence.
"The sheriff's deputy said he got out of his car and told the woman to turn off the car. She laughed, backed up the car, then drove forward again and nearly hit the deputy, the report said.
"The taxi slammed into the deputy's car and kept going, turning back onto Brier Creek Parkway into oncoming traffic, the report said. Another deputy continued to chase her until the taxi got a flat tire. Officers boxed in the car, pulled the woman out and arrested her.
"Her blood alcohol level was 0.19, according to court records, more than twice the legal limit to drive in North Carolina.
"The woman was charged with driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license, felony speeding to elude arrest, felony assault with a deadly weapon on a government official, and felony larceny of a motor vehicle. Court documents and her criminal and driving records show that her driver's license had been revoked before the incident, but they do not indicate why.
"Under a deal with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors in the car chase: larceny, speeding to elude arrest, assault on a government official and DWI, according to court records. She was required to serve three consecutive weekends in jail and was placed on two years' probation. She paid restitution and court costs, and completed her probation."
Apparently you tried to straighten out your life. You went to Durham Technical Community College and graduated in 2004 with an associate degree.
Good for you!
This spring you were a full-time, second-year student at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). A police psychology student with a 3.0 grade average.
But you did not resist the lure of easy money that is associated with moral abandon. You worked for a local escort service, Bunny Hole Entertainment, when you went to the Duke Lacrosse party. You told The News & Observer that you had worked for the escort service for two months, doing one-on-one dates about three times a week.
You reportedly said, "It wasn't the greatest job," but rationalized taking it this way: you had two children and a full class load at N.C. Central University, and the job paid well and fit your schedule.
Your mother told ESSENCE magazine that you went away to a hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, for about a week last year, where you were treated for a "nervous breakdown". Your parents did not say they knew what brought on the breakdown, but they did say that you were upset about mounting bills.
Crystal, if you deduced from the Runaway Bride hoax that perpetrating a hoax is a quick way to become well-known and make a lot of money quickly, you need to rethink that.
You told The News & Observer that the Duke party was the first time you had been hired to dance provocatively for a group. Both hirer and hiree were at fault in that respect, and then it worsened catastrophically.
You arrived at the Duke Lacrosse party without a chaperone or security and dressed only in her revealing dance outfit -- a negligee and shiny white strappy high heels. Professional "exotic dance" performers say both actions are considered unprofessional.
Crystal, you said: "My father came to see me in the hospital. I knew if I didn't report it that he would have that hurt forever, knowing that someone hurt his baby and got away with it."
Crystal, a false claim or rape hurts everyone.
Do you want your father to hurt less? Then tell the truth now.
You were living near your parents at the time of the party. There is a church across the street from the family home. One of three that your family attends. Pick any one of them and go in and pray about this. You need the strength to do the right thing. It can't come from Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, or The New Black Panthers, or your personal attorney. It can only come from God. And God can forgive anything to one who actually repents.
Crystal, you never sued anyone on your claim that three black men raped you when you were a teenager, and you did not pursue your criminal complaint against your ex-husband for allegedly threatening to kill you, not showing up for the hearing.
Don't keep this pathetic Duke "rape" case" going any longer. Come forward now and put an end to it.
Michael J. Gaynor is an independent columnist
FEATURES 
