DURHAM Defense attorney Clayton Jones withdrew from Crystal Mangum’s case after a court appearance Wednesday because he saw her talking to members of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong, outspoken critics of the Durham County District Attorney’s Office.
Outside the courtroom, Mangum said Jones told her she wasn’t following his legal advice.
Just minutes earlier, Jones had agreed to adjust his schedule next Monday to fit in a 2:30 p.m. hearing to reassess the conditions of Mangum’s bond. She is free on $100,000 bail and under house arrest in her parents’ home on Savannah Avenue.
Jones said Mangum’s father had recently died and her mother had fallen ill.
“She’s requesting that her location change,” said Jones.
Mangum was arrested at her Lincoln Street home in February after police alleged that during an argument with her ex-boyfriend, she set the apartment on fire and tried to kill him while her three young children and two Durham police officers were in the home.
Jones said the district attorney’s office has offered a plea bargain on charges of attempted murder, arson, assault and battery, identity theft, injury to personal property, resisting a public officer and misdemeanor child abuse.
“They’re trying to get her to plead because the state doesn’t have a case,” said Sidney Harr, a member of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong. “They are all charges that are trumped up by the prosecution.”
Mangum held a press conference last week, saying the district attorney’s office is punishing her because her unproven accusations of rape against three Duke lacrosse players embarrassed the prosecution.
State Attorney General Roy Cooper cleared the three men in 2007. Mangum never faced any charges in the case, which gained international headlines and led to the resignation of former Durham District Attorney Nifong after the State Bar charged him with 20 ethics violations.