how to clear selections in datatable

I am using datatables (https://datatables.net/). My tables contain a column with checkboxes. I get which rows are checked by doing the following: 

    var tu = $('#mytable').dataTable().api();
    var rows_selected = tu.column(0).checkboxes.selected();

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This works fine until I recreate the table with new data. When I execute the code above I am getting the selected rows from the initial data. I have tried calling destroy() and clear() before I call datatable() again.  Ie, I have tried doing:

$('#mytable').DataTable().clear().destroy().draw();

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I am recreating the table by doing the following:

$("#contactlist").html(data);

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where data contains the html for the table (ie <table><thead> ....</thead><tbody>....</tbody></table>)

Can anyone help me figure out what I need to do to clear the previously selected rows.

Thank you