
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990                   TAG: 9003182378
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GRUNDY                                 LENGTH: Medium

PAGEANT WINNER SUES FOR LOST TITLE

A teen-ager stripped of a high school beauty pageant crown in a dispute with another contestant has filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the school principal and the Buchanan County Board of Education.

According to the suit, Renita Nichole Fletcher was crowned Miss Hurley High School on Oct. 29, 1989, but lost the title a day later after the mother of a rival contestant alleged a mistake in the tallying of the judge's scorecards.

A panel of judges had graded each contestant in categories including beauty, poise and charm.

A meeting was held the day after the pageant to discuss the scoring, according to the suit.

At the meeting, school Principal Robert Wimmer "was informed by Ms. Evelyn Clevinger that she had double-checked each of the ballots and that there had been no mistakes," according to the suit filed on Fletcher's behalf by Pikeville, Ky., lawyer Thomas Goodman Jr.

But Wimmer named Melanie A. Clevinger the winner anyway, the suit contends.

"In complete disregard of the plaintiff's rights in failing to consider her tender years and emotional state as a teen-age girl, [Wimmer] took it upon himself to declare the complaining contestant . . . the winner of the pageant," the suit claims.

The suit claims Wimmer then gave Fletcher the option of choosing to be one of the runners-up or withdrawing from the contest. The girl "refused to accept any of the alternatives, and the meeting was adjourned," according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims Wimmer then informed the county's weekly newspaper, The Virginia Mountaineer, that Fletcher had withdrawn. Photographs of the newly crowned Clevinger and two runners-up were sent to the newspaper, according to the lawsuit.

Wimmer declined public comment, other than to say that the lawsuit will be contested.

The suit charges the episode has caused Fletcher "extreme embarassment and humiliation before her classmates and community," as well as severe emotional suffering.

The suit seeks $50,000 in compensatory damages, punitive damages of $200,000 and a court order forbidding contest directors from declaring anyone other than Fletcher the winner.

by CNB