Miss America Will Testify in Sex Sting Cases
Miss America Lauren Nelson will testify against the men she helped arrest in an undercover sex sting if asked to by prosecutors, a pageant spokeswoman said Tuesday in response to reports the beauty queen had refused to take the stand.
The Miss America Organization said Nelson is “fully cooperating with the law enforcement officials.” Spokeswoman Sharon Pearce said that included the district attorney’s office.
The organization’s statement came on the same day that Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota issued his own public statement, one that called on the 20-year-old beauty queen to “meet her civic responsibility and testify as a witness to a crime.” Nelson, who hails from Lawton, Okla., worked with police in Suffolk County to target would-be Internet sexual predators, taped for an episode of the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” She posed as a teenager and lured men into chatting online and meeting her at a Bay Shore home, where police and crews were waiting. Eleven men were arrested in the sting.
