Beauty Queen’s Lawyer Sues Wildman Harrold, Claims Leaked Details Nixed Fee Deal
The lawyer for a beauty queen who sued over her lost Miss California crown says leaked details of a sex tape have nixed his agreement to accept lower attorney fees in the case.
Lawyer Charles LiMandri claims in the suit that he reduced legal fees that would have been paid partly by Miss California USA as part of an agreement for secrecy in a suit filed by beauty queen Carrie Prejean, according to stories by Courthouse News Service and TMZ.com. Now he wants $276,000 plus punitive damages.
The suit names as defendants two Miss California USA executives, their lawyer, James Nguyen, and his law firm, Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon, Courthouse News says. The suit says only pageant officials and their lawyer knew details of the settlement and a secret Prejean sex tape that quickly ended up on TMZ.com.
Prejean was in the news after she opposed same-sex marriage during the Miss Universe competition. When officials stripped Prejean of her Miss California title, they claimed she had missed scheduled appearances and failed to repay a loan for breast implants.
After LiMandri filed the suit for Prejean, a confidential settlement was reached. But details quickly leaked to TMZ asserted Miss California officials had the upper hand in mediation because they had a sex tape of Prejean.
The TMZ report on the settlement said Prejean essentially walked away with nothing after pageant officials showed her the tape, but her lawyers and publicist got about $100,000 in the deal.
