Former Miss Florida USA seeks $15 million for defamation.
Beauty queen Genesis Davila, crowned Miss Florida USA is suing the pageant after organizers took her crown and accused her of violating the pageant rules.
The 24-year old beauty queen strongly denies the accusations of the organizers and is decided to clear her name.
The lawyers of Davila have filed a suit asking the Miami- Dade circuit judge to issue an emergency injunction restoring her title and bringing the crown back to her.
The suit of the Puerto Rican model also seeks $15 million from pageant organizers for defamation. Organizers include Grant Gravitt, Tel-Air Interests Inc., and IMG Universe LP.
Davila was crowned July 16 in Fort Lauderdale and then dethroned six days later. Pageant director Grant Gravitt Jr. cited an Instagram post showing Davila getting professional hair and makeup help, a violation of pageant rules.
But Davila’s lawyer, Richard Wolfe, presented an enlarged photo of the post during a Monday news conference. It showed the photo was dated more than a week before the contest.
A voicemail and email seeking comment from Miss Florida USA weren’t returned.
Davila was replace by runner-up Linette De Los Santos who won as Miss Sunny Isles Beach USA and is now the new Miss Florida USA 2017.
Linettte now takes over the duties and responsibilities of Miss Florida USA 2017. Linette De Los Santos hails from Santo Domingo from Dominican Republic. She studies Law at the NSU Shepard Broad College of Law in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The Miss Florida USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Florida in the Miss USA pageant.
While Florida has had runners-up, finalists, and semi-finalists, the state has never won the Miss USA pageant, although Cheryl Patton became Miss USA after Sylvia Hitchcock won Miss Universe.
The most recent finalist was Brittany Oldehoff who placed 4th runner-up in 2014.
Two former Miss Florida Teen USA titleholders have won this competition, and three titleholders have also competed at Miss America.