Former Miss Pennsylvania, Sheena Monnin, has been ordered to pay $5 million to Donald Trump after publicly claiming the Miss USA pageant is rigged.
Former Miss Pennsylvania, Sheena Monnin, has been ordered to write a hefty seven-figure check in favor of Donald Trump for publicly claiming that the Miss USA pageant is rigged.
Monnin, a former contestant of the Miss USA 2012 pageant, resigned as Miss Pennsylvania in 2012 after her groundless allegations against Trump's co-owned contest. Manhattan federal judge J. Pail Oetken, in a 30-page ruling, settled the lawsuit by ordering Monnin to pay "what is a devastating monetary award," of $5 million as compensation for the losses incurred, according to NY Daily News.
The legal battle began after Monnin reportedly learned the names of the top five Miss USA competitors before the show was even aired. Although, she issued a statement saying that she was joking, Trump's Miss Universe Organization filed a lawsuit against the brunette beauty for defamation. The suit was ruled in favor of the Miss Universe Organization in December, last year. Monnin appealed the judgment, which was rejected by the court, this week.
"I was hopeful for a different outcome, but I am pleased that the true nature of the Miss USA judging procedure has been exposed by the testimony of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) and Ernst & Young during the arbitration proceedings - testimony that reveals that the MUO does select the top 15 contestants irrespective of the preliminary judges' scores," Monnin wrote on her Facebook page Thursday.
Monnin established "The Sheena Monnin Legal Defense Fund" to cover bills totaling more than $50,000 in the case.
But Michael D. Cohen, special counsel to Trump, contested the latest remarks made by Monnin on her Facebook page. "I disagree with every statement made by Miss Monnin in her most recent posting," he said. "And I'm shocked to see that she has yet to learn her lesson."
