Former Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin will have to pay Donald Trump and his Miss USA pageant 5 million dollars for defamation, despite her pleas that the payout would "financially devastate" her.
Federal Judge, J. Paul Oetken, upheld an arbitrator's decision that Monnin must pay for calling the pageant "fraudulent," the New York Post reported.
Oetken wrote on Tuesday that the court does not take lightly that Monnin is compelled to pay.
However, he blamed Monnin for not taking the case seriously enough.
He also wrote that although the beauty should have initially engaged in mediation and, later, remained diligent over the course of the arbitration process, it is clear that she was woefully unaware of both the consequences of her disengagement and the severity of the allegations against her.
Monnin claimed that she wasn't properly notified about the hearings and there was misconduct by an arbitrator.
But the judge ripped her "poor choice of counsel," who "presented no evidence on her behalf over the course of several months."
The confusion began when Monnin claimed after the 2012 Miss USA pageant that a contestant saw a written list of five finalists backstage before winners were officially announced onstage.
