Melissa King, Miss Delaware Teen USA, resigns amid sex video scandal

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(2/26/13)</h6></div><div class="video-container novideoextras" id="odyArtVideoThumb" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; margin: 10px auto; text-align: center; width: 640px;"><ul class="videoPlayer clearfix" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px;"></ul></div></div><div class="ody-bo-sm " style="clear: left; color: #2c2c2c; float: left; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 13px; margin-bottom: 175px; position: relative; width: 138px;"><div class="ody-byline" style="display: inline-block; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; width: 138px;"><div id="ody-byline-written-by" style="margin-top: 1px;"><h6 style="color: #666666; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Written by</h6><h5 style="margin: 0px;">Esteban Parra</h5><h5 class="ody-line2" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px;">The News Journal</h5></div><br /><ul class="ody-filed" style="clear: left; 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font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; height: auto; line-height: 13px; margin-bottom: 40px; margin-right: 20px; margin-top: 40px; position: relative; width: 300px;"><div class="ody-img-wrapper"><div class="ody-photo-port ody-photo ody-bom" style="clear: both; float: none; margin: 0px 0px 30px; overflow: hidden; padding-right: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="ody-bottomdiv" style="height: auto; position: relative;"><img alt="Melissa King is shown in a photo from the Miss Delaware Teen USA website." src="http://cmsimg.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=BZ&Date=20130227&Category=NEWS05&ArtNo=130227006&Ref=AR&MaxW=140&Border=0&Melissa-King-Miss-Delaware-Teen-USA-resigns-amid-sex-video-scandal" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; width: 300px;" /><div class="ody-buypic" style="bottom: 0px; clear: both; color: white; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; height: 20px; left: 0px; line-height: 18px; opacity: 0.8; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; width: 300px;"><a class="ody-zoompic AR" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="background-color: black; background-image: url(http://www.courierpostonline.com/odygci/p4/spritesheet_nr.png); background-position: -457px -1316px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: white; float: right; font-size: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 1px 10px 1px 25px; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">ZOOM</a></div></div><h6 style="color: #666666; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Melissa King is shown in a photo from the Miss Delaware Teen USA website. / Miss Delaware Teen USA website</h6></div></div><div class="ody-image-wrapper-extra-a"></div><div class="ody-facts-wrapper" style="border: 0px; height: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 10px 20px 10px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;"></div><div class="ody-image-wrapper-extra-b" style="padding: 0px;"></div><div id="p360_left_wrapper" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(211, 211, 211); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(211, 211, 211); border-top-style: dashed; border-top-width: 1px; margin-top: 30px; visibility: hidden;"><div class="p360-article hasAssets" style="clear: both;"><div class="ad_p360"><banner adserver="content.pulse360.com" bannertype="p360" ganid="courierpostonline" gans="news" p360id="91041742" pageposition="left" position="p360"></banner></div></div></div></div><div id="artpagination" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 13px;"><div class="c content-wrap" style="float: none; overflow: visible; width: auto;"><div class="gel-content" id="__gelement_10"><div class="gel-pane gpagediv" id="GPage1" style="width: auto;"><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"><span class="pp"></span>Miss Delaware Teen USA, Melissa King, has resigned her crown after facing questions about an online sex video that claims to star her.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"><span class="pp"></span>“The Miss Delaware Teen USA pageant has received a resignation letter from Miss King’s attorney,” pageant spokeswoman Dara Busch said in an e-mail Tuesday.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">That was the day after a porn website posted a sex video featuring a woman it identified as Miss Delaware Teen USA. The woman looks and sounds like King, 18, of Bethany Beach.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">In a phone interview with The News Journal on Monday, King said she was aware of the video, but denied appearing in it.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">“Absolutely not,” she said. “It is not.”</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Of the porn site’s claim, she said: “There are comments saying this; however, it’s not comments that are true.”</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Asked if the woman in the video is just someone who closely resembles her, King said, “Um, I’d rather not be talking right now, but yeah.”</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">King said she had an attorney but would not name him, explaining, “Because you’re going to publish something and I’ll, I’ll give you a call back another day.”</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Pageant officials said King is being represented by J. Gregory Hannigan of Hagerstown, Md.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">“A statement will be issued, but not today,” Hannigan said in an email Tuesday evening. “Thank you for your interest in Ms. King’s well-being.”</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">An email sent Monday night seeking comment from the website distributing the video was not answered.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Busch, executive vice president and managing director with Rubenstein Public Relations, said the runner-up will replace King.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">According to the Miss Delaware Teen USA website, that is Hailey Lawler of the Newark area.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Lawler, 17, is a captain of the Padua Academy soccer team and a senior at the all-girls Catholic high school in Wilmington.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Because Lawler had not officially been declared Miss Delaware Teen USA on Tuesday evening, her mother, Suzanne, did not want to comment, including on the controversy surrounding King.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Miss Delaware Teen USA is run by the New York-based Miss Universe Organization. This is not the first time issues have arisen within the organization involving a Delaware contestant.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">In 2005, Sheena Benton was allowed to remain Miss Delaware USA and compete in the nationally televised pageant after it surfaced that she had pleaded guilty for drunken driving in 2004.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Also, this is not the first time there has been a sex scandal involving a pageant contestant. In 1984, Vanessa Williams gave up her Miss America title after nude photos of her surfaced.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Miss America is not associated with the Miss Universe Organization.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">The video at issue, which runs about five minutes, is advertised on the site as “Miss Teen Delaware does porn” and pairs a photo of the woman in the video with a shot of King when she was crowned.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">It starts with an interview on what appears to be a hotel bed.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">The woman does not give her name. But when a man, who is not shown or identified, asks her when she turned 18, the woman says “about three months ago. March.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">King’s birthday is in March, according to the Miss Delaware Teen USA website.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">The interviewer then asks her what made her want to do her first adult video.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">“I thought it would be fun and I needed the money,” the woman says. “So I just decided to do it.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">The interviewer asked more questions, including if she had a boyfriend, when was the last time she had sex and at what age did she first have sex. The woman laughs a little as she answers.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Later, the interviewer asks her about being a “Miss. A Miss Teen?”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">When the woman acts reluctant to talk about it, he says, “I’m not going to say the state or anything. ... You did beauty pageants?”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">“I’ve done them, yes,” she responds.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">At the time the video was shot, King was the reigning Miss Teen Delaware International 2012. She won the Miss Delaware Teen USA title in November.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">The interviewer then asks if she has told anyone about doing the video, to which the woman replies: “It’s not a big secret. But I didn’t tell anybody specifically what I was doing.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Following the interview, the woman and a man, whose face is never seen, perform several different sex acts.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Word of the video’s existence was making the rounds Monday on Reddit, a social news and entertainment site. By Tuesday morning, most related content had been removed.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">Erik Martin, the website’s general manager, said the moderator removed some of the comments, but did not know why.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">“I am not sure, to be honest,” Martin said. “The moderator definitely removed some comments in the thread due to personal info, but I can’t speak to the thread. Could be personal info, or they could have just removed it because they didn’t feel it was appropriate in their subreddit.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">The local moderator declined to comment, but Reddit has a policy against disclosing personal information.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">On Sunday, King had posted on her Facebook and Twitter pages that “a year ago almost , I turned 18. I’m about to turn 19 and so much has changed for the better in my life.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 160px;">By Tuesday, her Facebook was no longer publicly visible.</div></div></div></div></div></div>

Melissa King Melissa King, Miss Delaware Teen USA, resigns amid sex video scandal

Miss Delaware Teen USA resigns amid sex video claims: Miss Delaware Teen USA Melissa King resigned her crown today after facing questions about participating in an online sex video. (2/26/13)Written byEsteban ParraThe News JournalFILED UNDERNewsNatio…

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