Queen of the Clouds wrote:Thomas876 wrote:The new Miss Louisiana looks mature and rather average although she is not ugly. I doubt she will stand out at Miss USA, even more with the controversy around her. It's not something you want to be associated with, it's more of a really bad publicity, I don't know if Crystle will want that. However, I don't think we should blame her... It's already traumatic enough. In France, candidates must have a clean criminal record, this is not the case in the United States?
On the other hand, the hunting images displease me... It's not something I want to see and I'm a bit of an animal rights defender.
PS: Josie Stephens has to come back. She's gorgeous!!!
I don't believe there are any restrictions against those with criminal records. I quickly checked the Hawaii website and this is what they say: "If you're a female, single (never married and never had a child), a United States citizen, and meet the age and residency requirements, we invite you to become a contestant." No mention of having a clean record. I mentioned Stormy Keffeler before, but I think she applies here too. She had a DUI charge and was dethroned for not reporting it to the Miss Washington USA officials when she was competing, but is now allowed to continue competing in the hopes of winning the title again and actually having a real reign. So it appears that girls are allowed to have criminal records as long as their records are reported honestly to pageant officials. I'm sure that if the organizers think a girl's record is too much, she may be barred from placing or competing entirely, but with something like a DUI charge you're still allowed to compete. I'm also not sure if Tanya even has a criminal record. It's possible she may not have been charged with any crime, we don't know a lot of the details just that it happened. In many cases like these the driver is not charged; whether it's because the investigation proved the pedestrian was the one at fault, the police were being corrupt, or anything else, it is very possible for an incident like this to lead to no charges. Laura Bush (a former First Lady of the US) is an example of that.
I agree with a lot of what you said though. I'm not really a fan, she's kinda boring, and she does bring with her some bad PR that Crystle probably doesn't want to have engulfing the brand on her first year. I don't think Tanya will win regardless, but that may be the final nail in the coffin for her. The hunting grosses me out too though. I get that it's popular in southern culture but I honestly don't care, it's barbaric and gross and I will not hesitate to cross a queen off my list when she posts pictures like that so proudly.
I'm praying that Josie decides to come back too though!! If she performs like this again next year, the crown is hers. Apparently she's an engineer too so I can totally see her going top five at Miss USA!!
Long story short with Stormy, they did ask her on the application whether she has been charged with any felonies, which she hadn't - her DUI was a misdemeanor - so at the advice of her attorney she left it blank and MUO dropped the hammer on her so PNW told her she can either resign and come back to compete in the future, or wait for MUO to strip her of her title. Of course, Stormy didn't cause an accident, much less a fatal one, and I still have my suspicions that she didn't win a MUO state title later due to that being on her record despite some incredible performances - although I might be a bit biased cause yall know I adore Stormy.
As far as I've seen from my research, although I'm by no means an expert, you can only be charged with vehicular homicide in Louisiana if a) you're under the influence of alcohol or drugs and b) it can be proven that the intoxication lead to the accident. Tanya passed a breathalyzer at the scene. There are other charges that can be given if she was being reckless or negligent, but it doesn't appear that was the case, either, the article makes it look like that stretch of highway was a dimly-lit mess, I've looked at it on google maps and it's very narrow with no sidewalks, and a tragedy waiting to happen. It's highly likely that she wasn't charged at all, and the situation was determined just to be a tragic accident.
I'm pretty confident that Tanya's accident did not disqualify her from winning a state title because she obviously is a state titleholder now, and I'm sure RPM knew about it. Whether she'll be quietly blacklisted from winning or placing at Miss USA is more of the question. We have a new director now with a new vision and policies, and this is a highly controversial background, and while I'm willing to look past it and chalk it up as a terrible accident, I don't know how Crystle feels about it.