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Duke lacrosse accuser released on bond on murder charge

A Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape in 2006 and is accused of stabbing a man to death in 2011 was released from jail Wednesday after a bondsman posted $200,000 for her.

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Crystal Mangum mug shot
DURHAM, N.C. — A Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape in 2006 and is accused of stabbing a man to death in 2011 was released from jail Wednesday after a bondsman posted $200,000 for her.

Crystal Mangum, 34, is charged in the April 2011 death of Reginald Daye, 46, who was stabbed with a kitchen knife during an argument at his Durham apartment, police said. They had been dating for about a month at the time of his death.

In January, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson set a July 8 trial date for the case and denied Mangum's request to reduce her bond and place her under house arrest on electronic monitoring until the trial.

Mangum, who is representing herself in the case, claimed in March 2006 that three players on the Duke lacrosse team trapped her inside a bathroom at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., where she was performing as a stripper at a team party, and raped and sexually assaulted her.

Her story about the incident was so inconsistent that Attorney General Roy Cooper later declared the players innocent, saying there was no credible evidence against them.

In February 2010, police arrested Mangum after an altercation between her and a different boyfriend. In that incident, she was accused of assaulting the man in front of her children and setting some of his clothes on fire.

She was later convicted of child abuse, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer in the case, but prosecutors dismissed an arson charge after a jury couldn't reach a verdict.

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