CNN
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More than 18 years after accusing three former Duke University lacrosse players of raping her, a falsified account she shared in graphic detail, Crystal Mangum admitted to lying about the encounter.

In a web show interview published Wednesday, Mangum apologized to the men and said her relationship with God made her understand why she fabricated the story. Mangum is serving a prison sentence for second-degree murder for the killing of her boyfriend.

The timeline of the North Carolina case begins in 2006, when Mangum said she stuck in a bathroomsexually assaulted and raped by David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann at a team party where she was performing as an exotic dancer. The men were arrested following his allegations.

“I falsely testified against them saying they raped me when they didn’t, and that was false. And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said on Katerena DePasquale’s show: “Let’s talk with Kat.” “I made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”

For more than a year, the school and lacrosse players were plunged into a media frenzy, subjected to intense public scrutiny and damaging allegations of sexual assault that were ultimately dropped.

After Mangum’s confession, Duke told CNN on Friday that he would not comment. The former players did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Here is how the events unfolded.

• March 13, 2006: Mangum is hired as a dancer for a private party hosted by members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team. It happens in a house on Buchanan Boulevard North in Durham. Mangum later accused several players of raping her at the March 14 party.

• March 28, 2006: Duke President Richard Brodhead suspends team play for men’s lacrosse teama move widely criticized as premature as no formal charges have yet been filed. Media attention intensified, with initial reports painting a portrait of privileged white lacrosse players being accused by a black woman. The case becomes a flashpoint for questions of race, class and privilegeaccording to the Washington Post.

• March 28-30, 2006: DNA testing on Mangum’s body fails to create a link none of the lacrosse players at the scene, according to a disciplinary order issued against prosecutor Mike Nifong by the State Bar of North Carolina, but Nifong insists on moving forward with the case. Skepticism about this matter is starting to mount.

• April 18, 2006: Nifong officially accuses Seligmann and Finnerty of rape, according to the disciplinary order. The charges rely largely on Mangum’s testimony, with forensic evidence either inconclusive or nonexistent.

• May 15, 2006: Nifong officially accuses Evans of rape, according to the disciplinary order.

• June 5, 2006: Duke announces lacrosse team is reinstated play the following fall, but public opinion had already deteriorated.

• December 28, 2006: Nifong is accused of hiding evidence and made misleading statements to the press, leading to a state bar investigation, according to the disciplinary order.

• April 11, 2007: Roy Cooper – then the state’s attorney general and now governor – announced “there is insufficient evidence to pursue any of the charges” in a statement. common by Duke Athletics. The accusations are abandoned.

“We believe these cases are the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations,” Cooper said. said. “Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the differing accounts of the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.”

• June 16, 2007: Nifong loses his law license following disciplinary hearings into his handling of the matter, including accusations of ethical misconduct and concealment of evidence. Her radiation is finalized by the state bar in July, according to the disciplinary order.

• June 18, 2007: Duke announces having ruler with the three lacrosse players, agreeing to pay a confidential settlement.

“It is impossible to fully describe what we, our families and our team have endured. As we have said from day one, we are innocent,” Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann said in a statement. statement. “But it took three hundred and ninety-four days, along with the intervention of the North Carolina Attorney General, before our innocence was formally declared.”

• October 5, 2007: The three players take civil action against the City of Durham, Nifong and other individuals, according to court documents. Durham later settle the lawsuit in part thanks to a one-time $50,000 grant to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.

• April 3, 2011: Mangum is charge for stabbing her boyfriend, which led to a lengthy criminal trial, and is sentenced of second degree murder in 2013.

Mangum spent 11 years in prison, which she overcomes by reading the Bible and finding humor in her thoughts, she said in her interview with “Let’s talk with Kat.”

She wishes she could help children who have been sexually abused, she told DePasquale. When asked if she could describe her experience in prison in one word, she replied: “Growth.”

Before becoming an exotic dancer, she studied psychology at North Carolina Central University. The transition came from her search for “validation,” she said in the interview.

“I was looking for love and acceptance from people,” she said. “People love me, accept me, pay attention to me to be validated. But you can get all of this in Jesus. He loves us as we are. This is what I learned in prison.

“I hurt my brothers and I hope they can forgive me and I want them to know that I love them and they didn’t deserve this and I hope they can forgive me. I hope they can heal.

An advocate for sexual assault victims said rare cases like this could discourage victims from reporting sexual assault and lead people to wrongly doubt it.

“Fake news hurts not only those falsely accused, but all rape victims,” Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, vice president of communications for RAINN, the nation’s largest organization fighting sexual violence, told CNN. “There are already too many victims who do not report the crime for fear of not being believed. After a false report in such a high-profile case, even more survivors may be reluctant to come forward for fear that law enforcement won’t believe them.

A study published by Violence against women in 2010, false reports of sexual assault were found to be between 2 and 10 percent. It is estimated that the majority of sexual assaults, 63 percent, are never reported to the police. National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Kaleba said she encourages people to consider the half-million victims in the United States. of rapes and sexual assaults each year which could now be faced with renewed disbelief and call into question the point of denouncing sexual violence.

“Don’t allow infrequent and false information to stop you from supporting survivors,” Kaleba said.