Dispute Over Pageant Title

The battle over who won the Miss Pleasantville beauty pageant has turned ugly after a voting sheet error caused officials to crown two different winners in a 90-minute period.

When the pageant, part of the Miss America Organization, ended Saturday night, officials announced that Ilaine Feliciano, 18, had won and they presented her with a crown, trophy and sash.

The decision angered some in the audience who thought Joy S. Jackson, 16, was the rightful winner because she had fared better in some of the pageant's individual competitions.

As pageant officials conferred and reviewed the scoring, Feliciano was photographed and left with her awards. A short time later, the officials said two conflicting statements on the judges' scorecards was to blame for the confusion and that Jackson was the winner and Feliciano was first runner-up.

Bert Lopez, one of the event's four judges, said a note at the top of the scorecards said the highest possible score in each category was 10 points, but another note at the bottom said the top score was 20 points. Apparently, he said, the people who tallied the scorecards went by the ten-point standard, even if a judge had awarded a higher score.

"When we (the judges) saw the outcome and ... Joy didn't place at all, we were surprised," Lopez told The Press of Atlantic City for Thursday's editions. "She seemed to be the winner to most of the judges."

However, Feliciano and her family have questioned their reversal of fortune and have refused to return the crown. Pageant officials have offered to increase the prizes she will receive, but negotiations are now at a standstill.

Feliciano's mother, Diana Rosario, said she heard people claim that the pageant was fixed when her daughter's name was announced, but said she didn't care. Now, she wonders if those people were right.

"Something's very fishy about the way it (the title change) was done," Rosario said, predicting that the dispute may end up in court.

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Author: 6 ABC-AP