BREAKING NEWS: Carrie Prejean Sues Miss California USA, Claiming Religious Discrimination
Aug. 31 2009, Published 5:48 a.m. ET
Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean has filed a complaint against pageant officials, Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of California, cites damages to Prejean including libel, public disclosure of private facts, religious discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Read the Carrie Prejean Filed Court Documents
"To us it's outrageous what happened," Prejean's attorney, Charles S. LiMandri, told RadarOnline.com exclusively. "There's no doubt in our
minds, that if she had answered that question at the Miss USA pageant differently she'd probably still be Miss USA right now, but she'd definitely still be Miss California."
In a statement obtained by RadarOnline.com, Limandri explained:
"Over the past two months we have worked hard to provide overwhelming evidence that Carrie Prejean did not violate her contract with Miss California USA and did not deserve to have her title revoked by Keith Lewis. We will make the case that her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage. Keith Lewis has refused to clear her good name or even to admit any wrongdoing. Therefore, Carrie Prejean is left with no alternative but to take her case to court where she expects to be fully vindicated."
Lewis—Executive Director of Miss California USA and Miss California Teen USA -- released this statement to RadarOnline.com in response to Prejean’s lawsuit: “It appears that suits from both sides are now inevitable against the other. I would guess Carrie sees it as a chance to get publicity for her upcoming book because in the interviews I have seen, she talks about the suit and the book in the same breath. We have no problem with her selling lots of books - considering in the current situation we could stand to profit from every copy she sells. For us, it has never been about her beliefs and we have always just wanted to move on. But it seems like Carrie really has nothing new to talk about or anything new in her life so the impression is she just keeps looking for ways to rehash her position as a victim because of her onstage answer.”
A comment call to Shanna Moakler's rep was not returned.