Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2008

Pageant officials back Miss Tri-Cities

Ingrid Stegemoeller, Herald staff writer

Pageant officials say they're backing Miss Tri-Cities Kyna Harris even though she reportedly had a relationship with a married man that ended before she won the title.

Harris recently has asked for two court restraining orders designed to keep the man and his estranged wife away from her and to stop them from contacting her.

"Right now we're behind Kyna 100 percent," said Dot Stewart, executive director of the Miss Tri-Cities Scholarship Program. "She's done a wonderful job for us as Miss Tri-Cities."

Harris, 22, wouldn't confirm the relationship with the Herald or share much information on the advice of her lawyer, Shawn Sant.

But a petition for a protection order that Harris is seeking in Franklin County Superior Court said Mathew Smith, 29, sent her repeated text messages after she ended their relationship in late May. The petitions don't allege any physical violence.

The Sept. 15 filing also detailed a Sept. 1 phone message Smith reportedly left Harris saying he would "ruin my name."

Harris also has filed for a no-contact order in Franklin County District Court against Smith and his wife, Ronalea Smith, 23.

Hearing dates are set for Oct. 6 on whether to grant the Superior Court petition and Oct. 16 for the District Court no-contact order. Temporary orders are in effect now.

Sant said the orders were filed to protect the reputations of Harris and the Miss Tri-Cities pageant.

Harris said her ability to act as Miss Tri-Cities has not been impaired, but she plans to move forward "very delicately."

Her mother, Marie Harris, said her daughter told Stewart about the relationship after Ronalea Smith wrote Stewart saying Harris' crown should be taken away because she was no longer a suitable community role model.

Harris' actions showed "a complete lack of ethics and lack of character," Ronalea Smith told the Herald. She said she has moved to California to be with family and has filed for divorce.

"I was completely in shock," she said. "My big thing is that (Harris) is a role model."

The Herald learned about the court filings after Ronalea Smith contacted the newspaper.

In those filings, Harris said she didn't know the Smiths still were together when she began the relationship with Mathew Smith.

That information eventually led to her ending the relationship, Sant said.

Mathew Smith, however, insists Harris knew he was married and said he only recently contacted her again after finding out news of the relationship was becoming public.

"I was in the wrong, I made a big mistake," he told the Herald. "The whole thing is I guess that anybody that's a role model, when they make a bad decision, should openly admit that they're wrong."

Contestants in the Miss Tri-Cities pageant sign contracts that include a morals clause that is similar to those signed at the state and national levels, Stewart said. "All contestants sign a very similar contract, across the board," she said.

The contract reads, "I am of good moral character and I have not been involved at any time in any act of moral turpitude," and continues, "I have never performed any act or engaged in any activity or employment that is or could reasonably be characterized as dishonest, immoral or indecent."

In an e-mail, Mike Miller of Puyallup, executive field director of the Miss Washington Scholarship Organization, said, "The contestant certifies that she is of good moral character. There is no way to design a moral character clause that covers every situation, so concerns related to the morals clause are always dealt with on a case-by-case basis."

Miller said he was under the impression that the relationship was over before Harris took her crown on July 20, which he said means it "has to be construed as a personal matter."

Although Stewart said she's never encountered such a situation during her 10 years as director of the Miss Tri-Cities pageant, several crown holders elsewhere have gotten into trouble with pageant organizations in recent years.

Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto apologized earlier this year for pictures that surfaced of her drinking and partying with friends while wearing her Miss Seattle crown. The pictures were taken in "private settings" while she held the Miss Seattle title and were stolen, Umemoto said at a news conference reported by the News Tribune in Tacoma.

Nude photos that had been taken a few years earlier cost Miss America Vanessa Williams her title in 1984.

And Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees lost her crown for compromising pictures of her taken in 2006.

Pregnancy caused Miss New Jersey USA 2006 Ashley Harder to voluntarily hand over her tiara because competing while pregnant is against pageant rules.

But Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner was allowed to keep her title after admitting to cocaine use and underage drinking. Miss USA is a separate program from Miss America.