Dethroned Miss North Carolina testifies in bid to keep title

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- A beauty queen trying to stay in the Miss America pageant told a federal judge Tuesday that the state pageant gave her the option of resigning or being fired when rumors of topless photos surfaced.

Rebekah Revels testified before U.S. District Court Judge James Fox that she not only submitted her resignation, but she also had signed a termination letter.

Revels, 24, said she and her mother, Deena Revels, at first decided she should go along with termination, but later decided to submit the resignation to save face.

"We had to explain to everyone back home what happened, and that was the easiest and most graceful way to do that," said Revels, her voice breaking.

"I would rather for people to say she resigned than she was terminated."

At issue in Revels' request for an injunction to keep her in the pageant is whether she resigned under duress, her attorney said.

Revels' testimony Tuesday was similar to that she gave last week in a state court, where a Raleigh-based judge restored her contract from the Miss North Carolina pageant.

That ruling meant there are two North Carolina contestants; the other is Misty Clymer, 24, the state runner-up.

Another state court order, by a judge in her home Robeson County, declared Revels the official North Carolina candidate.

Both women are competing in the pageant preliminaries while Fox sorts out the issues. The case was moved to federal court last week by Miss America lawyers.

Revels was called to court from rehearsals in the Miss America pageant, where she spent the weekend. She flew to North Carolina on a chartered jet, but her attorney wouldn't say who paid for the plane.

After the hearing ended, Revels left the courthouse to fly back. Her lawyer, Barry Nakell, agreed to end his evidence in return for agreement from the Miss America attorney that she could return to the pageant.

"The Miss America Organization is using this proceeding to keep her down here," Nakell said, a beaming Revels standing behind him with parents and friends, after court adjourned for the day. "I'm not going to let them do that."

Miss America lawyers didn't comment.

The hearing is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday, when the pageant lawyer can present evidence.

The order keeping Revels in the pageant expires Wednesday night and Nakell said he would ask that it be extended if the judge says he can't make a ruling right away.

Revels, wearing a Miss American crown pin on the lapel of her red suit, said she lost her title after pageant officials got an unsigned e-mail telling them to look for nude photographs. Revels said the e-mail came from a former boyfriend, Tosh Welch, whom she has sued.

There is dispute about the situation in which the pictures were taken. Revels said one photo shows her breasts.

Revels said she was changing clothes when the pictures were taken by Welch and that she didn't consent to them. She said she had gotten them back but the man took them and led her to believe they didn't exist any longer.

State pageant director Alan Clouse testified that Revels told board members the photos were taken during "an intimate situation and in her opinion they were OK because they were going to get married."

Revels told Fox she was called to a meeting with the Miss North Carolina pageant board July 22 to discuss the e-mail. The next evening, the state board told her that its members had voted to terminate her if she didn't resign, Revels testified.

Board members eventually agreed to give Revels until the next morning to submit her resignation, she said.

Miss America pageant lawyer Tim Barber showed Revels a copy of her resignation letter and asked if she had willingly written and sent it.

"Yes, I resigned," she said. "I don't feel like I voluntarily resigned."

Barber pointed out that the Miss America contract stipulates that the organization has the last say over who participates in its pageants.

"If facts about your reputation should change, they have the right to say you can't compete," he said, referring to Revels' agreement.

George Bauer, interim director of the Miss America Organization, was in the courtroom but hasn't testified.

Fox has said he doesn't think he can resolve the dispute this week and is on vacation next week when the pageant concludes. The judge has urged Nakell to be content with the lawsuit that could net his client a monetary reward.