Pageant sponsors say 2005 winner illegally kept crown
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

Hilary Gushwa

According to a report filed last week with Moorpark police by the Ventura County Scholarship Association, Hilary Gushwa, Miss Ventura County 2005, was married at the time of the 2004 contest, a violation of pageant rules.

Clark County, Nev. records show that Gushwa, then 22, married David Scanlan on Oct. 10, 2004, and the pageant was held on Oct. 23. Gushwa sought an annulment in June 2005. It was not clear whether the annulment was granted.

Neither Hilary nor her mother, Connie Gushwa, wished to comment for this story.

In the police report, the VCSA accuses Gushwa of perjury and grand theft and alleges she failed to return the crown and other items, sponsored gifts worth about $3,000, that were awarded to her as Miss Ventura County.

"All of that should have gone to the true winner. The crown is symbol that must be rightfully earned," Jackie Youngern, a committee member, said.

The scholarship association sued Gushwa for $5,000 in small claims court earlier this year, alleging that she knowingly and fraudulently misrepresented herself as single in order to compete in the pageant. The civil court awarded $3,121 to the association last month and Gushwa paid the debt.

During to the court proceedings, evidence was revealed that led the association to file the police report, Youngern said. The association alleges Gushwa, who is now a Camarillo resident, committed perjury while under oath in the small claims court case.

"Gushwa tried, on more than one occasion, to return the crown when she was told by the VCSA that if she did so, they would drop their legal pursuit of her," said Gushwa family friend Carolyn Schrimpf.

"However," Schrimpf said, "the VCSA refused to put that condition in writing- they preferred to take her to court. I have no idea why they're filing criminal charges against her after already receiving over $3,000 from her in small claims court. I think that the VCSA has lost sight of their objective of being a positive influence in young ladies' lives and have also forgotten all the good things that Hilary has done for some of them personally, and for our community."

Gushwa was to have represented Ventura County in 2005 in the Miss California contest. Miss California winners go on to compete in the Miss America contest.

State pageant organizers refused to allow her to take part in the California competition after learning she was married at the time she competed in the Ventura County event.

The misrepresentation of her marital status affected all the other contestants because no one was able to represent the county in the 2005 Miss California contest, Youngern said. "There wasn't enough time to prepare the runner-up."

Hilary Gushwa, Miss Moorpark 2003, founded Heart2Heart when she was 16.

The group raises funds for the National Marrow Donor Program.