Miss San Antonio Domonique Ramirez Wins Crown Back
Exclusive: Beauty queen told to 'lay off tacos' speaks about battle over crown.
March 25, 2011 — -- Ousted Miss San Antonio Domonique Ramirez won her crown back after a courtroom battle with pageant directors who allegedly claimed she'd gained too much weight.
"I feel great. I've only had like two hours of sleep this morning and I woke up happy. My family is behind me, my lawyers are behind me…I have a large support group and I thank God for that every day," Ramirez said in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America."
Ramirez, 17, took the Miss Bexar County Organization to court in February, claiming in a lawsuit that she had been unfairly stripped of her title in January.
"This is about principle, this is about what's right. I feel the right thing here is to work together to be successful," Ramirez said.
Ramirez claimed that a pageant director told her that she needed to drop weight at a bikini photo shoot. The 5-foot-8 teen weighs 129 pounds.
"She told me I need to drop 13 pounds and I needed to lay off the tacos," Ramirez said.
The president of the Miss Bexar County organization, Linda Woods, testified that the bikini pictures were "unusable."
"At first I took it as constructive criticism but then when I filed a suit against them... they said it in a very hurtful way…By no means am I overweight," Ramirez said.
The pageant board claims that the dethroning of Ramirez stemmed less from her weight and more from her performance as Miss San Antonio.
"Domonique is not fat by any stretch of the imagination. She's a beautiful girl, but she wasn't ready for Miss Texas," Woods said.
The board said the teen didn't represent the city well. They claim Ramirez turned up late to events and didn't send thank you notes.
"We had a vote and we decided it was in the best interest of the organization and San Antonio to have her removed," Woods said.
Ramirez's parents received an email on Jan. 25 saying the teenager had been replaced by the April 2010 pageant's runner-up, Ashley Dixon.