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Durham, N.C. — Family members of a man who was stabbed in his home April 3 say he died Wednesday evening. Crystal Mangum, the Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape in 2006 has been charged with assaulting him. Durham police could not be reached for comment on whether her charges would be upgraded. Mangum, 32, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and was being held in the Durham County jail on a $300,000 bond. Police said Mangum stabbed Reginald Daye, 46, in the torso with...

In the 1930s, two white prostitutes falsely accused nine black men of gang-rape, in order to avoid facing other police charges. Before the ensuing Scottsboro trials were over, the main accuser, Victoria Price (the second accuser had recanted) was transformed by the white public into a woman of the purest virtue, the epitome of Southern woman; and any challenge to this image was indignantly resisted: (snip) Times change, and the colors are different, but human nature remains the same. Two years out of high school Crystal Mangum claimed to have been once dragged into a bathroom and gang-raped by some...

DURHAM -- Prosecutor Mark McCullough opened Crystal Mangum’s arson trial today with the names of her three children... “That residence had a fire started in it while they were in it -- by her,” McCullough said, pointing his finger at Mangum. “This case is not complicated.” Defense attorney ...Dexter did not deny the basic facts of the case: That Mangum piled her boyfriend Milton Walker’s clothes in the bathtub and set them on fire, then threatened to stab Walker, all in the presence of two police officers who had gone to the couple’s home after Ariana called 911 to say...

We usually depict Justice as blindfolded, but we never show her as deaf; we know that she — and prosecutors — sometimes dance to the tune of the mob. A few years ago in an eastern city activists demanded action after police had been unable to stop a rash of assaults against gays. Police finally thought they had a suspect for one incident — a student at a university — and without investigating they arrested him in class during an exam. He was handcuffed and taken to jail late on a Friday afternoon — meaning he would have to remain...

We usually depict Justice as blindfolded, but we never show her as deaf; we know that she — and prosecutors — sometimes dance to the tune of the mob. A few years ago in an eastern city activists demanded action after police had been unable to stop a rash of assaults against gays. Police finally thought they had a suspect for one incident — a student at a university — and without investigating they arrested him in class during an exam. He was handcuffed and taken to jail late on a Friday afternoon — meaning he would have to remain...

DURHAM (WTVD) -- A judge has ordered former Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum arrested again. Officials say Mangum violated the terms of her pre-trial release related to the visitation hours with her children. (snip)

Before the attempted frame-up of innocent lacrosse players in Durham, lacrosse had a good reputation. It may have been seen as an elite sport (or, more truly, a regionally delineated sport); but it was also seen as honest, fun, exciting, and one of the few “sports” remaining which still concerned itself with “sportsmanship”. Then came the lies and the false accusations, and a university which was more concerned with the immediate PR fallout than with standing behind its falsely-accused students. And since it fit the convenient narrative which was being constructed, lacrosse was also lambasted. In Durham, three lacrosse players...

Since the current tragedy at the University of Virginia, the media has frequently brought up the Duke lacrosse case, as though the latter had some kind of relevance to the former. Because such associations are likely to be made in the future, let’s get a few facts straight: The Duke lacrosse players did not commit a crime in Durham; they were the victims of a crime (several crimes in fact: false accusations, and much more). Their community rushed to judge them, including preachers, newspapers, politicians, and assumed whatever “truths” were most convenient for their own agendas. The comparisons with Scottsboro...

What's getting slammed now, as it did with the Duke scandal, is the "culture" of lacrosse, as if the moment a boy picks up a lacrosse stick he overnight becomes a raging idiot who is probably prone to violent and abusive behavior. Any right-minded person knows there's no basis for such a broad stroke. Over the years I've encountered some true messes in lacrosse, players with poor conduct and a bad attitude who had no right in that or any other game. But those bad apples can be found in any sport. When the Love murder was made public, and...

The game of lacrosse originated with Native Americans , largely the Huron and Iroquois tribes. Westerners—missionaries and fur trappers—first saw it in the 1600’s. The Indians would play the game as symbolic warfare, with hundreds of men at a time, for days on end, with fields that knew no boundaries. Some historical records suggest that they would sometimes play to the death. George Huguely played lacrosse on a field that knew no boundaries. He played it to the death– his ex-girlfriend’s death; or so the reporting goes. But the story line is bogus. Granted, there is little doubt of his...

As we all know, lacrosse payers are uniformly oversized brutes, usually from privileged backgrounds of wealth and power, callous in their disregard for lesser beings, and certain that their rich daddies will buy them out of any trouble. If we didn’t realize that we soon would, once we started following the general press accounts. This distorted image has yet to be rectified; but lies piled up over time accumulate in layers, as Solzhenitsyn noted, and harden like sediment on the sea floor; and any fresh disturbance can stir them up again and muddy the waters afresh.

“Accused UVA Murderer Came from A Life of Privilege; George Huguely Attended Prestigious Prep School, Vacationed in Palm Beach” (ABC) In the wake of this week’s tragic loss of a University of Virginia lacrosse star, one thing could be certain: that the media would race to discover truths that aren’t there; and manufacture its own fictional, but philosophically honed, narrative. For example, someone reading the above could come to the conclusion that vacationing in Palm Beach somehow results in a propensity to commit crimes; or that having a nanny is a sure path to moral decay. (Comparable statistics on how...

A large blast ripped through the centre of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Saturday, Reuters witnesses said, and smoke could be seen rising above the city's diplomatic quarter. . .

A man charged with the second-degree rape of a then-freshman in February 2007 was arrested on the same charges Nov. 14. Michael Burch, a Durham resident, is currently being held in Durham County Jail on $1.85 million bond, Durham Police Department clerks said. (snip) Burch, who is not a Duke student, was arrested in February 2007 for allegedly raping a then-18-year-old freshman at around 3 a.m. Feb. 11, 2007 at an off-campus party at 405 Gattis St. The party was hosted by members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and police had found marijuana, cocaine and Oxycontin in the house....

Durham, N.C. — A man accused of raping a former Duke student last year is in jail again, charged with the same crime against a different woman. The first victim's father says the new charge could have been prevented if bond had been set higher in the case involving his daughter. Michael Jermaine Burch was charged in February 2007 with the second-degree rape of a Duke freshman in a bathroom during a party at a residence at 405 Gattis St. After getting out of jail on a $50,000 bond, Burch was arrested again Nov. 14 on charges of second-degree rape,...

Another Democratic official charged in satanist sex crimes By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun DURHAM -- Police say they've arrested and charged a third person in connection with an ongoing rape and kidnapping investigation. Diana Palmer, 44, is charged with being an accessory after the fact, Durham Police Department spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Wednesday afternoon. Palmer is first vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party. Her arrest came five days after police arrested the party's third vice chairwoman, Joy Johnson, 30, and Johnson's husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25. Craig faces three counts of second-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree...

An IDF soldier was reportedly killed Tuesday in the middle of a farewell ceremony at Ben-Gurion airport held in honor of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in attendance of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and other state dignitaries, Israel Radio reported. Channel 1, however, reported that the soldier's condition was serious and he was receiving emergency medical treatment. A police spokesman said the policeman had committed suicide. The soldier apparently fell from a vantage point he was occupying on a high building, from he was securing the event, and a bullet misfired from his gun. (snip) Initially, the prime...

DURHAM -- Three unindicted Duke University lacrosse players have amended their federal civil-rights lawsuit against the school and the city, sharpening their attack on the school's top trustee and levying new allegations of misconduct against city officials. The filing on behalf of current or former players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen and Matt Wilson came late last week. In it, attorney Bob Ekstrand alleged that Duke trustees Chairman Robert Steel controlled the school's response to an exotic dancer's false charge that she'd been raped by three members of the 2005-06 lacrosse team. His decisions among other things prompted the Duke University...

Two years ago, the infamous Duke lacrosse case started with a group of lacrosse players hiring a pair of strippers to dance and otherwise "perform" at a rowdy house party. Fast forward two years, to Sunday night. While the rest of the world watched the Giants defeat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, about 300 students and others attended the Sex Workers Art Show, in which strippers and prostitutes were hired to dance and otherwise "perform." (snip) The event was paid for by the Student Health Center, the University Fund, the Women's Center, Sexual Assault Support Services, the Women's Studies...

The three falsely accused Duke students are now suing the city of Durham for their mishap; and rather than being a run-of-the-mill run-for-the-till, this has actually become a fight for an affirmation of our Constitution. In the 1930s in Scottsboro, nine young men were accused by two loose women of rape; the women wanted to avoid getting into trouble with the police, and thought a cry of rape would help. It was axiomatic that the men, all black, had to be guilty; a verdict of innocence would have been too upsetting to the dominant culture to contemplate. Advance the clock...