NOT AGAIN – AT 8:37 A.M. ET:  We don't report this with any joy, but because it sheds light on a public issue:

DURHAM, N.C. — Durham police arrested Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum, 33, late Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him.

Authorities charged her with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer.

COMMENT:  Caution:  It is a charge.  Nothing has been proved.  But we wish the trendies at Duke University, in the nation's media, in the Durham prosecutor's office, and in various chic precincts in the intellectual classes, had issued that same caution when Ms. Gale destroyed the lives of three innocent Duke boys in the now famous lacrosse case, when she accused them of rape. 

The boys were eventually cleared, but every time anyone Googles their names, for the rest of their lives, that false charge will come up.

We've learned once again, in the last week, how bungled cases can lead to tragedy.  Amy Bishop allegedly (we must say that) murdered three professors at the University of Alabama on Friday.  She has a sordid history, but the university never knew about it when it hired her because of bungling and a breathtakingly lax Massachusetts legal system, which let Bishop through a number of cracks.

And now the charge against the Duke accuser, who was apparently never punished for her false allegations.

What nightmares our fellow citizens must live every day when the legal system fails, or law enforcement breaks down, or others go along with a trendy charge, regardless of evidence.

February 18, 2010