On March 13, 2006, Duke's men's lacrosse team held an off-campus party at 610 North Buchanan Boulevard in Durham, North Carolina, where dancers Crystal Mangum and Kim Roberts had been hired to perform. The evening became chaotic: the women argued with partygoers, objected to a racial insult and a crude broomstick remark, and left after a short performance. Mangum later alleged that three players—captains David Evans and Collin Finnerty, along with Reade Seligmann—had dragged her into a bathroom, raped and beaten her, and choked her. The allegations ignited a national firestorm over race, class, sexual violence, privilege, and Duke's athletic culture. A lurid email sent by player Ryan McFadyen joking about killing strippers, written in the style of the novel American Psycho, was released without the surrounding exchange and intensified public assumptions that the team was guilty; McFadyen was suspended and received approximately a thousand death threats in one week, although he was never charged.
The prosecution quickly unraveled. Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong publicly declared that a crime had occurred and repeatedly suggested racial motives and player guilt before the investigation was complete. Police used suspect-only photo arrays, failed to follow recommended identification procedures, and pursued a case despite major contradictions in witness accounts, physical evidence, and the players' alibis. Medical examinations found no injuries consistent with Mangum's account, and DNA testing found no evidence linking the accused players to a sexual assault. A private laboratory hired by Nifong also withheld exculpatory DNA information from its initial report. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed all charges on April 11, 2007, calling the players innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" and describing Nifong as a rogue prosecutor. Nifong resigned, was disbarred for dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation, and served a day in jail for criminal contempt after lying about the handling of DNA results. The three players later reached a major civil settlement with Duke, while the case became a lasting symbol of prosecutorial misconduct and media-driven presumption of guilt. In December 2024, Mangum admitted that she had fabricated the assault and falsely testified; she was not criminally charged for the false allegations.
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