Miss Ventura County 2005, who was dethroned the same year and later accused by pageant organizers of theft and perjury, fought back at a mid-month press event organized by her attorney.
Hilary Gushwa, then a Moorpark resident, lost her title and the right to wear her crown when pageant officials learned she was married at the time she participated in the local competition.
Gushwa says she is the target of an "angry beauty pageant mother who is upset that her daughter lost a competition."
"I won Miss Ventura County 2005. I applied for the competition in August of 2004 and every representation I made in my application was true and accurate," Gushwa said Sept. 14.
Records show Gushwa got married in Las Vegas on Oct. 10, 2004. The pageant took place Oct. 23, 2004.
According to pageant rules, entrants "must never have been married, never had a marriage annulled, or been pregnant."
The Ventura County Scholarship Association, which organizes the pageant, sued Gushwa for $5,000 in small claims court earlier this year, alleging that she knowingly and fraudulently misrepresented herself as single in order to compete. The civil court awarded the association $3,121 in July. Gushwa paid the debt.
Pageant organizers filed a police report in August, accusing Gushwa of grand theft and alleging she committed perjury during the civil trial.
Speaking up
Gushwa, speaking outside her attorney's office in Ventura, refuted the allegations. Along with her attorney, Ron Bamieh, she pointed the finger at Jackie Youngern, a committee member of the Ventura County Scholarship Association.
Bamieh maintains Gushwa committed no malfeasance when she accepted the title, and said the driving force behind the allegations, Youngern, is the mother of another 2005 pageant contestant.
TKPN
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