Head Strong | Duke rape accuser should be punished for lives she damaged

July 1, 2007

By Michael Smerconish

 

There will never be justice in the Duke University lacrosse case until somebody slaps cuffs on the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum.

 

In April, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper issued a report accompanying dismissal of the charges against each of the three lacrosse players accused - Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. Cooper didn't pull any punches. His findings went beyond the conventional "not guilty" to proclaim the men "innocent." Duke reached a private settlement with the men to ward off litigation. Too bad it reportedly protected 88 Duke faculty members who signed an ill-conceived petition last spring that all but explicitly sided with the accuser. Duke also settled with an uncharged lacrosse player; he complained he received a bad grade because of his association with the team.

 

And of course, Mike Nifong - former district attorney for Durham County, and the man who so publicly prosecuted the case - has now surrendered his job, his license to practice law, and the keys to his office. A disciplinary panel concluded he should be disbarred for his handling of the case, and then Durham's sheriff literally drove to his house and took his keys to the county courthouse. Before it's all over, Nifong could end up in jail.

 

All good, so far. But someone is missing: Mangum. She needs to return to the Durham County courthouse in handcuffs - as perpetrator, not accuser. The idea of "closure" remains a joke until she gets a taste of what Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann went through, and what Nifong is now suffering.

 

She needs to be punished for the damage she has done to our judicial system and the potential harm she has caused real rape victims. It's often said rape victims are assaulted twice - once by the perpetrator, and again by the judicial process. Fear of this process, which can become a referendum on the lifestyle of the "victim," leads some to choose not to prosecute. The Duke case, initiated by false charges, became particularly ugly, and one has to worry that it exacerbated an already hostile climate for victims. Might a real victim look at the legitimate lambasting of Mangum and find even more reasons not to enter that arena? I think so.

 

The report by the North Carolina Attorney General's Office illustrates not only Nifong's naivete, but also Mangum's deceit:

 

"The reinvestigation led to the conclusion that there was no credible evidence to support the allegation that the crimes occurred. . . . Her proposed testimony about critical events changed whenever it was demonstrated that what she was saying could not be accurate. . . . While witnesses often have inconsistencies in details when recounting events over time, the volume of inconsistent statements and the fact that many of these were substantial and were in regard to significant events rendered the truthfulness of the accusing witness in serious doubt."

 

In non-legalspeak, she lied! But she walks free.

 

George Parry, a former federal and state prosecutor now in private practice in Philadelphia, told me that North Carolina law stipulates that Mangum can be charged with false reports to law enforcement agencies, a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison.

 

And he added: "Even though Crystal Gail Mangum set this train wreck in motion, it appears that she has 'Tawana Brawley immunity' from prosecution. Thanks to racial politics, she belongs to a protected class of false declarants whom law enforcement will not dare to touch."

 

Let's hope it's a fear law enforcement will soon overcome. Until it does, the tracks through Durham remain uncleared.

 

Michael Smerconish's column appears on Thursdays in the Daily News and on Sundays in Currents. Michael can be heard from 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays on "The Big Talker," WPHT-AM (1210). Contact him via the Web at http://www.mastalk.com.