2nd Contestant Claims Miss USA Was Rigged

Source says Miss Florida Karina Brez shared list of Top 5 backstage
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2012 10:53 AM CDT
2nd Contestant Claims Miss USA Was Rigged
Miss Colorado Marybel Gonzalez, Miss Connecticut Marie-Lynn Piscitelli, Miss Delaware Krista Clausen, Miss DC Monique LaShone Thompkins, and Miss Florida Karina Brez are shown May 30, 2012.   (AP Photo/Darren Decker, Miss Universe Organization)

A second contestant confirms what Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin first claimed: Miss Florida Karina Brez saw a list of the top five Miss USA finalists hours before the live telecast June 3. "I saw Florida backstage and she was very, very flustered and upset," the anonymous contestant tells Fox News. "She was able to reveal to me at least four of the five names who went on to be the top girls. She couldn't remember the fifth because she was so upset."

This was before the Top 16 were announced, the source notes. "Several of the girls then started hearing through the grapevine about a list," the source continues. "A lot of people were upset." Brez has denied the claims, saying that she did see "a piece of paper with names on it" backstage, but that she was simply joking when she theorized that those names were the final contestants. "The list I saw didn't even have the eventual winner on it," she said in a statement. Click for more on the scandal, including some ugly texts Monnin reportedly sent during the pageant. (More Miss USA stories.)

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