Since Crystal Gale Mangum (pictured) accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape back in 2006, her life has been punctuated by one arrest after another.
Mangum's latest arrest occurred Sunday morning, when she repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend in the torso, according to the NY Daily News. Mangum was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Last February, Mangum was arrested and charged with attempted murder and arson after one of her children (at the time aged 3, 9 and 10) called the police to report domestic violence. When police arrived on the scene, Mangum reportedly gave them a false name and age and set her boyfriend's (not the same as the one she just allegedly stabbed) clothes on fire in the bathroom tub.
A few months later, Mangum held a bizarre press event on her lawn -- she was on house arrest -- attempting to tell her side of the story about the charges she faced in her previous assault and arson case.
By December, Mangum was convicted of misdemeanor child abuse and damaging property for her February incident.
Clearly, Mangum has some considerable issues to work out.
According to Fox News, though, Mangum's life was tumultuous way before her rape allegations in 2006. Mangum claims she was kidnapped and raped back in 1993, when she was 14 years old, by three men. This case was later dropped, because Mangum filed her report three years after the alleged assault and then didn't pursue the case.
Her parents reportedly disagree on whether the rape actually occurred.
After getting married to Kenneth Nathanial McNeill at 18, she later accused him of threatening to kill her in a wooded area on June 16, 1998, but failed to attend the court hearing, once again, so the case was dropped.
At the age of 20, Mangum became pregnant while she was in the Navy (by an unidentified sailor) and was discharged. She returned to her hometown of Durham, North Carolina, and found work as a topless dancer at Diamond Girls, where she was reportedly arrested repeatedly. Mangum would have one more child by the sailor and a third by another man.
Some of Mangum's family characterize her as an exhausted single Mom who had a mental breakdown over debt, but who has nevertheless tried her best to provide for her children.
Mangum, who received an Associate's degree from Durham Technical Community College, and was a full-time student at North Carolina Central University, where she maintained a 3.0.
As an exotic dancer after school hours, though, some coworkers reportedly described her as a "problem dancer" who often passed out.
Learning about Mangum's past before she became known as the "Duke Lacrosse Accuser" begs the question of who Mangum really is: the abused, overburdened single mother, or the misguided, immature liar who attempts to pin her problems on others?
It seems quite likely that Mangum was sexually abused at some point in her life, and her behavior is a cry for help.
And yet, she may also not be so different from many precocious teens who insist on being grown before their time, and then when life serves them a plate of consequences for bad decision making, refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
Her latest incident -- if true -- proves that she is violent and out of control. Her next blowup may not be on the next boyfriend but on her own children, as was deeply sad case case with Shaquan Duley, who suffocated and drowned her two kids.
And for that reason, we must hope Mangum gets the help that she needs.