This is not the best New Year for Sheena Monnin, the Pennsylvania beauty queen, who has been ordered to pay $5 million for defaming Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant. In an article on Dec. 31, 2012, Radar Online reported, Miss Pennsylvania US: 'I'm Shocked' At $5 Million Judgment In Donald Trump Case. Sheena has said she's "shocked" at the arbitrator's ruling in this case.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Sheena has said of arbitrator Theodore Katz's decision, “I was shocked that was ruled against me, frankly.” She has also said she feels “the most logical course of action is to fight" it. In June Sheena made waves when she said in a Today Show appearance and her Facebook page that Trump's contest was predetermined. The pageant claims this comment cost them $5 million from a would-be sponsor.
Michael Walsh has also covered this story for the New York Daily News, Ex-Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin ‘shocked’ at order to pay Donald Trump’s organization $5M for calling Miss USA pageant rigged. Sheena was taken by surprise when she was recently ordered to pay billionaire Donald Trump’s company $5 million for accusing the Miss Universe Organization, which also runs Miss USA, of rigging the competitions.
Former U.S. District Court Magistrate Theodore H. Katz, who has said he who thinks Sheena was frustrated that she did not place in the top 15, claims that her allegations cost the pageant up to $5 million in sponsorship money for 2013. It appears this case could raise constitutional issues of freedom of speech, which is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and which is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. We'll just have to see what kind of legal moves Sheena and her lawyers take next.
