Miss USA contestant Sheena Monnin resigns, claims pageant is rigged
Miss Universe Organization says that Monnin resigned because she disagreed with the new policy allowing transgender contestants
Sheena Monnin, who was named Miss Pennsylvania for the 2012 Miss USA pageant, has turned in her tiara, claiming that the entire pageant was rigged. The Miss Universe Organization, owned by Donald Trump, has denied the claim, saying that it received a letter that gave a different reason for the 27-year-old’s resignation.
According to USA Today, Monnin, who has a master’s degree in psychology, first announced her resignation on her Facebook page early Tuesday.
“Many people have sent me messages requesting and at times demanding that I come forward if I know information that has led to my abrupt and surprising resignation,” she wrote. “I agree that it is my moral obligation to state what I witnessed and what I know to be true. I will relay to you the reasoning behind my resignation.”
She goes on to explain that she heard from anothercontestant that saw a list of the Top 5 contestantsbefore Sunday night’s pageant even started. “I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED proceed to call out in order who the Top 5 were before they were announced on stage. Apparently the morning of June 3rd she saw a folder lying open to a page that said 'FINAL SHOW Telecast, June 3, 2012' and she saw the places for Top 5 already filled in.”
She later says that they decided not to bring it up before the show, just to see if the Top 5 turned out to be the same on the list. When the Top 5 turned out to be the same, “...I knew the show must be rigged; I decided at that moment to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own. That is all I know about this.”
Monnin did not reveal the identity of the contestant that actually saw the list, but she said that if that person came forward herself “then perhaps actioncan be taken. As for me, I believe her words and I will not encourage anyone to compete in a system that in my opinion and from what I witnessed is dishonest.”
This post followed an earlier one, in which she only said she was resigning because she found that “In good conscience I can no longer be affiliated in any way with an organization I consider to be fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy. I do not support this system in any way.”
However, in a statement to E! News, the Miss Universe Organization said that, in her resignation letter to them, Monnin “...cited the Miss Universe Organization's policy regarding transgendered contestants, implemented two months ago, as the reason for her resignation.” Adding, “Today she has changed her story by publicly making false accusations claiming that the pageant was fixed, however the contestant she privately sourced as her reference has vehemently refuted her most recent claim. We are disappointed that she would attempt to steal the spotlight from Olivia Culpo of Rhode Island on her well-deserved Miss USA win.”
Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss USA during the pageant on Sunday. Monnin placed outside of the Top 16.
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