Free Republic

A Thousand Words Friday?s Herald-Sun contained an interview with the accuser?s father, Travis Mangum. According to reporter BriAnne Dopart, He still believes wholeheartedly his daughter was brutally raped and assaulted on the night of March 13, 2006?he recalls in vivid detail his daughter?s swollen eyes and cut arms. On several other occasions, Mangum has made such a claim, always mentioning the swollen eyes. Nor is he the only case-related figure to suggest that the accuser had readily detectable physical injuries. On March 16, when Sgt. Mark Gottlieb?s team conducted their first interview with the accuser, Officer R.A. Reid photographed the...

Sherrod Story False By Jeffrey Lord It isn't true. Shirley Sherrod's story in her now famous speech about the lynching of a relative is not true. The veracity and credibility of the onetime Agriculture Department bureaucrat at the center of the explosive controversy between the NAACP and conservative media activist Andrew Breitbart is now directly under challenge. By nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court. All of them dead. But first, it's important to say this. After Shirley Sherrod's firing I wrote a column congratulating Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for removing her -- based on a viewing of the...

SAN ANTONIO - The Texas Supreme Court is deciding whether to strip away a $5 entrance fee to watch nude dancers. The court heard arguments Thursday about whether the so-called pole tax, a fee mandated by lawmakers in 2007, is unconstitutional. Texas has so far collected more than $13.6 million from the fee. But many clubs have ignored the law, which is intended to fund programs for sexual assault victims. The Texas Entertainment Association, which represents strip clubs across the state, sued to block the fee. Lower courts have sided with the clubs. Justices questioned both sides at length. Talk...

Crystal Gale Mangum, progressive heroine and the accuser in the infamous Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, is in the news once again: Durham police arrested Mangum for attempted murder, arson, and identity theft after responding to a domestic disturbance call: Durham police arrested Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum, 33, late Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him. Authorities charged her with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting...

  At the Liestoppers forum, Walt-in-Durham has a detailed rundown of Crystal Mangum’s appearance tonight at UNC. As I have noted previously, it is mindboggling that an academic institution would invite someone who the state AG had, with copious evidence, deemed a false accuser and not allow her to be questioned on the myriad contradictions in her story. It is all the more mindboggling that the only reason for this refusal to allow questions was to prevent the false accuser from saying something that could open her to a lawsuit.I should note, in addition, that Mangum’s p.r. representative had similarly...

Lacrosse accuser to speak To address justice system, the media Rachel Coleman, Staff Writer Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Updated: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 The woman involved in the Duke University lacrosse team scandal more than three years ago will make a rare public appearance today at UNC as part of an event about social injustice. Crystal Gail Mangum, who accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape in 2006, will speak in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center about “the harsh realities of minority treatment both in the justice system and the media,” according to the event’s press release. The lacrosse...

By Tamara Gibbs DURHAM (WTVD) -- Since three former Duke Lacrosse players were declared innocent of rape and assault charges, the alleged victim in the highly publicized Duke Lacrosse case has remained out of public view until now. In a press release, Crystal Mangum's manager has announced plans to release a tell-all memoir entitled "The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story." According to the book's co-author Vincent Clark, the book will be released in October.

RALEIGH - An attorney for former Duke lacrosse player Collin Finnerty said Friday that the state attorney general made the right decision not to prosecute the woman who falsely accused Finnerty and two other players of raping her. "I really don't feel in my gut any need to go charge Crystal Mangum," lawyer Wade Smith of Raleigh said. "I understand the philosophy that people shouldn't be able to just do this and get away with it. On the other hand, I'm not sure that it enhances our society any, our civilization any, to now bring the power down upon her."...

In Wednesday's coverage of the Duke lacrosse case, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) for the first time identifies the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum, of Durham, N.C., by name. During the year since Mangum told police she was assaulted at a lacrosse team party, The N&O followed its longstanding policy of not naming claimants in sexual assault cases. This policy is accepted practice among most print and broadcast media in the United States. The N&O has upheld this approach, which the newspaper has followed for at least 15 years, to avoid discouraging victims of rape and sexual assault from reporting...

Just heard from Julia Lewis on TV. Nifong filing to dismiss rape charges. Will keep SA and kidnap charges.

DURHAM, N.C. - The father of the woman who has accused members of the Duke lacrosse team of sexually assaulting her said he didn't find out that his daughter was the reported victim - and that she is an exotic dancer - until a reporter visited his house. The retired trucker who lives in Durham said he saw his daughter the day after the reported attack, but she didn't say anything was wrong. She even left her car at the house for several days because he said she didn't want to drive it. Her father, a quiet man who tinkers...