Pageant says Miss Grand International from R.I. 'dethroned' for inappropriate photo
Anea Garcia, a former Miss USA runner-up from Cranston, says she quit because she feared for her safety after she was assaulted.
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Anea Garcia, then Miss Grand International, with two unidentified people in a cropp...[+]
By Jenna Pelletier
Journal Staff Writer Posted Mar. 31, 2016 @ 1:30 pm
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Miss Grand International organization on Thursday continued to insist that Anea Garcia was "dethroned" as the pageant's top winner, adding an accusation that she had been let go in part for taking an inappropriate photo while wearing the pageant's crown.
Garcia had said in an email to The Providence Journal Wednesday night that she resigned her title, and that she had felt her safety was in jeopardy. She said she was sexually assaulted in South Sudan in early March while representing the organization, and it "showed no concern" about the incident after she reported it.
In response to Garcia's statement, Thailand-based Miss Grand International vice president Teresa Chaivisut emailed The Journal saying that Garcia had, indeed, been fired.
Chaivisut said Garcia was let go for taking an inappropriate photo wearing the Miss Grand International crown, in violation of a contract Garcia had signed. Chaivisut emailed The Journal a photo of Garcia in a dress with a revealing slit in the upper leg-crotch area.
Chaivisut added that Garcia, a former Miss USA third-place finisher who grew up in Cranston and was Miss Rhode Island USA, had "asked to step-down but with conditions ... out of the contract agreed in the first place, therefore we dethroned her."
Garcia won the Miss Grand International title in October, representing the Dominican Republic. In exchange for promoting Miss Grand International's message of peace, titleholders receive $40,000. Garcia received a cash advance of $19,000, Chaivisut said Thursday, after she requested the money to pay a college tuition fee and a medical bill for her grandmother.
The pageant had said last week that Garcia was let go because she was difficult to work with and spent too much time on her studies at Roger Williams University.
Garcia did not respond immediately to a Journal request for comment on Thursday's word from the pageant.
Garcia wrote in her Wednesday statement to The Journal that she was required to travel alone to foreign countries with no contact person or escort.
The pageant denied the claim, saying that an escort from the organization, Nuttawat "Boss" Auttasingha, was with her throughout the trip to South Sudan. Chaivisut emailed The Journal a copy of Auttasingha's and Garcia's plane tickets. They show scheduled arrival times on March 7 in Juba, South Sudan of 9:20 a.m. for Garcia and 10:20 a.m. for Auttasingha. Garcia flew from Boston, while Auttasingha left from Bangkok, Thailand, where the pageant is headquartered.
Typically, titleholders travelling internationally to make appearances fly out of Bangkok on the same flight as an escort, Chaivisut said. Both parties agreed that having a chaperone meet her in the destination country would be acceptable from December through March, while Garcia was spending time in the U.S. to attend a wedding and attend a college course, she added.
Chaivisut said Garcia reported the sexual assault in South Sudan about a week after she left the country. In an email to Garcia, later sent to The Journal, Chaivisut asked Garcia why she did not report it to her escort, Auttansingha, as soon as it happened.
The email went on to say that the assault was a "big accusation" that needed to be investigated before "we can send our concern further." She wrote that bringing it up "will [affect] our relationship with the country greatly."
"We basically need hard evidence," Chaivisut wrote. "But luckily you are safe."
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20160331/NEWS/160339882
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