Friday, October 24, 2008

Crystal Does the Party

Mangum opens her “invent-all” memoir with her latest story about her introduction into the world of exotic dancing; and then a wildly non-credible recapitulation of the party.

Here’s the serial fabricator on how she allegedly got into exotic dancing.

It would be much more money than I could ever earn up on stage, and I didn't like the atmosphere in the clubs that much anyway. The one thing she pointed out about me was that I did not have a pimp like the other girls at the club. I wasn't a prostitute and wouldn't have all of what that meant hanging over me . . . Since I was going into this strictly as a performer, sex with complete strangers was not something I was ever willing to consider.

So from where, exactly, did all that DNA from multiple unidentified males originate? Mangum doesn’t even bother to try to lie: she just doesn’t mention the finding.

Here’s how Mangum describes getting to the party:

I know there has been some discussion and eyebrows raised about having people drive me to my gigs. Having a driver is part of the business for a vast majority of the girls. Not only does the driver make sure you get where you need to go but also serves as protection.

Mangum leaves out a rather significant point: the reason she needed a driver was because she had no drivers’ license. She lost her license after stealing a taxi in a drunken outburst and then trying to run down a police officer.

Her usual driver, she recalls, was fellow NCCU student Jerriel Johnson: “Jerriel also knew my boyfriend and that made it more comfortable for Mat to know that I was being watched after.”

Johnson, of course, is the person who admitted in his police statement that he had sexual relations with Mangum. The serial fabricator doesn’t say if they told her boyfriend about their affair.

Mangum devotes the bulk of her party chapter, however, to a blow-by-blow refutation of the Attorney General’s report, as if Roy Cooper, his prosecutors, and the State Bureau of Investigation had simply made up their report.

Writes she,

Frustrated and not exactly sure where 610 North Buchanan was, I called my dad for better directions. He pointed us right to where we needed to go. We arrived at the house at about 11:15 pm.

Mangum had previously claimed she arrived at the party around 11.45—a version of events corroborated by Roberts, neighbor Brian Bissey, her cellphone records, and the credit card receipts of “driver” Brian Taylor. In her December 2006 attempted frame, Mangum revised her arrival time to 11.00pm—to make up for the fact that both Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty had airtight alibis for the time of the alleged “rape” based on her 11.45 arrival. Now she’s split the difference and claimed she arrived at 11.15pm—which would still suggest (based on her cellphone records) that she was either planning or performing a nude dance as she happily chatted on the phone with her father, asking him for directions to 610 N. Buchanan.

Mangum darkly hints at a date rape drug, since “we will never be sure what was in the drinks that Dan gave us.” And yet she describes herself throughout the chapter as not under the effects of any drug.

Shortly after her arrival at the house, Mangum recalls racial epithets—joining Mike Nifong and Duff Wilson of the New York Times as the only people still clinging to this version of events:

Then I heard it for the first time; someone in the crowd was referring to us as “black bitches.” It was not said just once. It was almost as if that was our names.

And yet: Kim Roberts—a person, it’s perfectly clear, who was extremely sensitive to racial insults—never mentioned such obviously inflammatory behavior. Nor did Devon Sherwood—the African-American player on the team, who was present for the party.

Mangum continues her long-existing (and scarcely credible) pattern of treating Kim Roberts as the more disgusting of the two dancers:

We had only been performing a matter of minutes and Nikki had taken things way beyond anything I had planned. I glanced and saw her panties lying beside her.

Yet Mangum has to come up with some way to account for the fact that photos showed her both on the floor in both a sexually suggestive and seemingly drunk state. In an almost hilarious passage, Mangum claims that her utter shock (shock!) at Roberts’ loose behavior—and not her drunkenness/drug-induced status—caused her to fall on the floor and appear to be either drunk or high:

The way I ended up on the floor was completely an accident and the result of my complete and utter surprise at what was going on.

Again, all who believe that can sign up for Mike Nifong’s campaign to become the next Supreme Court Justice.

How did the dance come to a conclusion?

“We need to get out of here. They are going to try and use that broom on us,” Nikki screamed at me over the chaos. She looked scared and I felt it. By now I heard the words nigger, bitch, and other names. They were definitely not happy with the performance.

Again, Roberts—a person, it’s perfectly clear, who was extremely sensitive to racial insults—never mentioned such racist insults occurring inside, during the party. Nor did she ever tell police that she had said anything like, “We need to get out of here. They are going to try and use that broom on us.”

This version of events, it seems, combines the “timid Crystal” presented in the April 6, 2006 police report and the “Crystal-changes-her-story-to-address-all-the exculpatory-evidence” Mangum offered in the Linwood Wilson December 2006 frame.

Mangum, who admitted that she closely followed media reports about the case, sometimes attempts to fit into her story known facts that undermined her myriad claims. For instance, photos showed Mangum banging on the back door, with a smile on her face, trying to get back into the house around 12.30am. But Matt Zash had locked the door, in part to keep the clearly imbalanced Mangum out.

In Mangum’s new version of events, Zash locked the door after she returned to the house: “I felt even more in a panic when I saw one of the guys go to the door we had just entered, to close and lock it behind us. That struck me as odd since people had been moving freely in and out all night. That move seemed especially sinister in light of the way everyone was acting.”

How, then, do we explain the photos of Mangum outside the locked door? Perhaps the woman who alleged rape-by-levitation also believes she could simultaneously be inside and outside the house.

Mangum falls back on her April 6, 2006 version of the beginning of the “rape,” when one of her “attackers” uttered a 1950s-movie line: “Sweetheart, you can’t leave.” And such almost comical lines came amidst a wild party: “It seemed as though the entire crowd was going to converge on us. They were so much more vocal than the people I danced for at the Platinum Club, and they looked as though they wanted to provoke a confrontation . . . we were confronted by a group of angry guys. It seemed as though they were yelling and screaming at the tops of their lungs . . . The crowd was extremely agitated . . . I could hear yelling in the other room. It sounded like the way people scream and cheer at a football game.”

And here are some of the actual photos of these “angry guys” at this “agitated” party.




Wild, indeed.

As AG Cooper noted in his remarks, perhaps Mangum—due to her myriad psychological problems—actually believes some, or all, or the myriad, mutually contradictory, stories she has told. But the photos don’t exactly corroborate her wild claims.

Those who desire a minute-by-minute recapitulation of the party can find it in the AG’s report. The document directly contradicts virtually everything Mangum claimed in her “invent-all” memoir.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would be almost comical if it weren't so serious. She doesn't seem to want to accept the fact the players were disgusted by her. Just take a look at Reade's face in one of the photots looking like he's going to throw up, and that should tell you all you need to know.

As for her version of events, they have been disproven by numerous other versions of the events by Magnum herself, as well as by other evidence and sources. This woman literally believes she can lie with impugnity. It is shocking to me that this case taught her nothing on that score.

Oh well, you can't fix stupid.

-Esquire-
-Maryland-

Jim in San Diego said...

Mangum's false claims of rape have harmed genuine victims. Where are the complaints by genuine victims' advocates, who must recognize the damage being done?

The inconconceivable absence of intelligence, literacy, logic, education or thought of a number of black "college professors" will likewise harm those who come after them.

Employers will eventually learn to recognize that graduates of these institutions have met no standard of intelligence or scholarship, and will not risk hiring them.

What a misfortune.

Jim Peterson

Debrah said...

This past article by Tom Danehy was referenced by a commenter on Gearino's blog today.

Essentially blaming the lacrosse players for having the party in the first place.

I hope Danehy will be around to monitor every university campus in the country.

We can't have college students having parties!

Anonymous said...

"This woman literally believes she can lie with impugnity. It is shocking to me that this case taught her nothing on that score."

I think this is because she also learned that there are many people who are all too willing to believe her claims.

However, I doubt she realizes that she only has this hoard of "believers" because her story supports the race/gender/class narrative.

Anonymous said...

The Attorney General and the young men's families gave Mangum a pass and she has abused the gift. It is now time to hold her accountable. This must end for these boys and Mangum must be punished. She simply cannot be allowed to profit or to become a celebrity based upon the perpetuation of these LIES. Steve in New Mexico.

Anonymous said...

I hope actual leaders in the black community will have the courage to do what state-level law enforcement clearly does not: call on this woman's prosecution.
I hope women in the victim's rights community take careful account of what is happening, and call on state-level law enforcement to prosecute this fraud, for they too must know the immeasurable damage that is being done to the cause of legitimate victims everywhere by this nauseating account. Both of these groups must be cognizant of the damage she has done to each of their movements and interests. She is single-handedly undoing decades of hardwon progress and heroism in both the black and victim's rights communities.

America, be forewarned: you are about to hand the full keys of this country's government over to the party that re-elected Mike Nifong, filled all 88 empty-chairs on that faculty and to this day refuses to prosecute this cruel woman for her malicious and intentional acts of cowardice and exploitation of demonstrabl innocent people.

Anonymous said...

The local Durham blogs, and other blogs that made this a major topic back in 2006-2007, seem to be hiding from this whole thing, ignoring it completely.

Anonymous said...

Maybe you can't fix stupid but you can fix false accusations. It's called prosecution for filing false charges. If Precious can pen this piece of fiction, what makes us believe that she is not ready for litigation.
I sincerely hope that the LAX players (all of them) file suit for all of the profits from the sale of this piece of garbage PLUS damages to their reputations. Why not file immediately.
CGM is obviously a slow learner. Does she not realize that the LAX legal teams are far superior to anything she can hire. What moxie? Brad Bannon may be a junior partner but he made mincemeat of Mikey. How can CGM stand up to an examination by Jim Cooney and Joe Cheshire?
Is she even thinking at all? Maybe this whole charade is to provide cover for her insanity plea when she is charged for her part in the fiasco.
Wow--Wonderland of Wackos!

Anonymous said...

It would be a real tragedy if Mangum and her "publicist" smelled a buck here (and that's what they do best) and decided to take this show on the road, with appearances at black bookstores across the country. This nonsense has to stop --- and soon. I'll bet Joe Cheshire, Jim Clooney and David Rudolf would each give about a month's wages to get Mangum on the stand, under oath and have an hour each to question her. Until she is prosecuted, this will never end. Steve in New Mexico

river rat said...

After watching Mangum's "press conference", I NOW truly understand the meaning of "You can put lipstick on a pig - but you've still got a pig"....

Even "cleaned up and dressed" - Mangum's dark an ugly side shines through....

Anonymous said...

3:48 pm:

Like you, I think the most amazing part of this is that Mangum apparently thinks she sees the light at the end of the tunnel when it's actually a huge freight train coming right at her! Just as Nifong thought he could continue on just as he did in traffic court, Mangum apparently thinks her old ways will work, not realizing that she'll be dealing with some pretty fine lawyers who will have her for breakfast.... not only that, both the lawyers and the the players' families have made it, um, "crystal" clear, that they will aggressively pursue libelous statements..... can't say she wasn't warned.

After the OJ trial, Jimmy Breslin, the New York columnist, commented that when white guys riot, all you see are gray suits and briefcases. Stand by, here comes another white guy riot..............

Anonymous said...

Who knows exactly what in Ms. Mangum's book is accurate, but it's not entirely a fabrication. As I recall there was evidence she ran away at age 14 and got mixed up with some older boys/men who were drug dealers and who ultimately went off to prison. That experience at 14, even without the alleged rape by Fred and friends, is pretty far outside the realm of normal adolescence. It's difficult to picture a situation where she could have been involved as a young runaway with a person like Fred that did not involve--at a minimum--drug use and sex well before the age of consent.

Based on the excerpts from the book, the tape of her press conference, and other information we have about her, it seems Ms. Mangum is very fragile, easily manipulated, and plainly a person with notable psychiatric problems who epitomizes a delusional person--namely one who cannot let go of the delusion despite clear and convincing--even incontrovertible--evidence that the delusion is entirely false.

Excerpts from the book offer the best insight thus far into Ms. Mangum's history, deeply distorted way of thinking about herself, and twisted perceptions about her world.

The Mangum supporters trouble me more right now than Ms. Mangum or her book--at least what I've seen of it. The supporters seem purposely ignorant of the overwhelming evidence of no wrongdoing whatsoever in the Duke case, unacquainted with most of the facts about the case, and entirely unaware that a person can be both highly functional in most respects and still psychotic and deeply delusional.

Observer

Anonymous said...

Re: 3:20's

"America, be forewarned: you are about to hand the full keys of this country's government over to the party that re-elected Mike Nifong, filled all 88 empty-chairs on that faculty and to this day refuses to prosecute this cruel woman for her malicious and intentional acts of cowardice and exploitation of demonstrabl innocent people."

Please don't forget that NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, one of the greatest "heroes of the hoax," is a Democrat. Recall also that Cooper asked the US Justice Department, which wields the essential tool of the investigatory grand jury, to assist him in investigating the prosecution. But the Feds, under the control of the Bush administration from the beginning of the lacrosse cases through now, have done nothing.

Ken Duke