Duke Rape Accuser: 'I'm Going to Stab You [Expletive]!'
Feb. 18, 2010— -- The woman who was at the center of the phony Duke lacrosse rape case was arrested today and charged with attempted murder.
The Durham Police Department told ABC News that Crystal Gale Mangum got into an argument with her boyfriend, Milton Walker, shortly after midnight on Thursday.
The arrest warrant claims that Mangum, 33, scratched, punched and threw objects at Walker before taking all of his clothes and setting them on fire in a bath tub. Firefighters were sent to the home to extinguish the blaze.
Listen to the 911 call HERE.
Police said they had to evacuate three children, ages 10, 9 and 3, from the apartment because of the fire. It was not immediately known whose children they were.
Mangum is charged with first-degree attempted murder for communicating a threat because she allegedly told Walker in front of officers, "I'm going to stab you [expletive]!"
She was also charged with five counts of arson, simple assault, identity theft, damage to property and resist, delay and obstruction of justice. In addition, she faces three counts of child endangerment.
Mangum is being held without bond and her first court appearance is scheduled for today.
Mangum triggered a furor in 2006 when she accused three Duke Lacrosse players of raping her while working at an off campus party. Prosecutor Mike Nifong heightened the seriousness of the charges by declaring the alleged assault a hate crime.
The charges against the three, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, were eventually dropped, but not before it roiled race relations in the university town and the players were suspended from school.
Another member of the team said in an email response to ABC News "All I can really say is that, like everyone, she has the right to due process and is innocent until proven guilty."
Nifong pursued the prosecution vigorously despite the growing evidence that Mangum had lied about being sexually assaulted and despite the fact that Magnum changed key facts in her version of what happened.
