Carrie Prejean Turns Up Legal Heat on Pageant Officials

Lawyer sends letter to pageant director's attorney detailing errors cited in Prejean's dethroning

By Natalie Finn Jun 18, 2009 11:15 PMTags
Carrie PrejeanDenise Truscello / Getty Images

Carrie Prejean insists she didn't shirk her duties as Miss California—and she wants to make sure the people she might sue know it.

In a letter dated Wednesday, attorney Charles LiMandri details what his client did not do to violate her contract en route to being stripped of her title last week, a month after Miss Universe Organization honcho Donald Trump gave her a pass on those racy pics.

LiMandri's letter echoes the theory he shared with E! News about his client falling prey to a politically charged plot to take away her crown.

According to the lawyer, Prejean never made unauthorized solo appearances as pageant director Keith Lewis alleges; and, as for the events she was supposedly supposed to appear at, Prejean wasn't even guaranteed entry at some of them.

"There is no indication that those would be official events that pageant winners would actually wear their tiaras and sashes," he wrote, referring to the list of events that was sent to his client.

"None of the events listed on the Hollywood News Calendar were invitations to Carrie Prejean or anyone else."

The Hollywood News Calendar is a roundup of goings-on around town, many of which are nonexclusive and open to the public. The events Prejean turned down were from that itinerary, LiMandri says.

Also attached to the correspondence was a letter from Lewis' secretary to Prejean, in which she wrote, "Let me know if there are any events that you would like to attend and we'll do our best to get you in. The more notice the better."

LiMandri also addressed the invitation to pose for Playboy that was extended to Prejean. The attorney states that three people on a May 15 conference call recall Lewis saying he offered the job to Prejean "so when they take her title away, she doesn't sue me."

LiMandri sums up by demanding that Lewis to retract the "defamatory statements" made about Prejean not living up to her contract.

"If he does not comply, I will have no alternative but to recommend that Ms. Prejean proceed to do so through litigation," he concluded.

—Additional reporting by Whitney English

Latest News