Beauty Queen Blackmail

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) _ Miss New Jersey says she won't give in to an anonymous threat that personal photographs of her will be made public if she refuses to relinquish her crown. <br/><br/>``It would

Thursday, July 5th 2007, 3:22 pm

By: News On 6

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) _ Miss New Jersey says she won't give in to an anonymous threat that personal photographs of her will be made public if she refuses to relinquish her crown.

``It would certainly be easier for me to simply succumb to these unlawful and immoral threats, and quietly disappear,'' Amy Polumbo said Thursday at a news conference in Asbury Park.

Polumbo's lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said that starting last week, Polumbo, her family and officials in the Miss New Jersey Education Foundation received packages with pictures of her and the demand that she resign by Friday.

Caruso said the pictures show her with some friends and some may have been photos that she posted years ago on a private Internet site.

Did they reveal more skin than a pageant-sanctioned swimsuit? College students behaving badly, perhaps? Caruso would not say.

``I don't think the photos are that bad,'' Caruso said. ``The people posting this blackmail scheme are trying to make these photos out to be worse than I think they are.''

He said he couldn't comment further because more photos could arrive and change everything.

The 22-year-old Polumbo won the Miss New Jersey competition last month, giving her the right to compete in the next Miss America competition _ wherever and whenever it may be held.

Miss America Organization officials said they were aware of the situation, but it was up to the New Jersey pageant officials to deal with. The local affiliate did not immediately return a message Thursday from The Associated Press. But Caruso said the state competition officials were on board with her trying to fight back.