Melissa King says she is not stepping down because of a video that has surfaced. King told The (Wilmington) News Journal that she was aware of the video, but denied appearing in it.
Pageant officials say the 18-year-old King is being represented by Hagerstown attorney J. Gregory Hannigan. The attorney told the newspaper that a statement on the resignation will be issued.
In the clip, a woman who resembles King says that she turned 18 three months ago—”In March”—before telling an off-camera interviewer that she decided to go into (p###) because she needed the money. The woman then says she participates in beauty pageants, though she doesn’t reveal in which state she competes.
In a brief phone call with Gawker, the Miss Teen Delaware USA Appearance Coordinator, Elaine Paolo,
would neither confirm nor deny that King has stepped down, saying she “needed more details.” But if it is indeed King in the video, she would have made appearance around the time she won Miss Teen Delaware International 2012, the title she held immediately before winning Miss Teen Delaware USA.
Read more from Plustings Media: Melissa King Photos: Miss Delaware Teen USA
If her very recent social-media presence is any indication, it would appear that King had an inkling that her past was coming back to bite at her present. She tweeted this three days ago:
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