Mix-Up Strips Miss California-USA of Her Title

Dec. 5, 2007 — -- An apparent mix-up in vote counting led the wrong woman to be crowned Miss California-USA. Four days after the pageant, Christina Silva, the crowned winner, had to give up her title to the girl who had been named second runner-up.

In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" Silva, 24, spoke about her ordeal and her fight to uncover the truth.

Silva was ecstatic the night she won. "I saw my family by the balconies and all I could do was cry and wave and say thank you God, thank you God. It was an amazing, amazing feeling."

The president of Ecuador's mom even called Silva's grandmother to congratulate Silva on the accomplishment and to let her know what a great achievement this was for an Ecuadorian-American.

But the euphoria didn't last long. Four days later Silva spoke with Keith Lewis, the executive director of the competition, who broke the news.

Thursday, Silva went to Lewis' house with her parents. "Within 10 minutes he just said, 'I don't know how to say this to you but you are not the winner. Miss [Raquel] Beazley, the second runner-up, is the winner, and there was an accounting error.'"

Silva says Lewis warned her that coming forward about the matter would hurt her career.

"All he kept saying is, 'Christina, you can continue wearing the crown and the sash and go on to Miss USA, but if this leaks your integrity and your acting career could be jeopardized. And we know you're faith-based and a woman of integrity and we know you're going to do the right thing, right?'"

Silva was then further shocked because Lewis told her to call Beazley right away. "It was so bizarre, they kept saying, 'You have to tell her. You have to tell her. You're the honorable one.'"

Overwhelmed and wanting to do the right thing, Silva says she agreed without fully understanding what had happened. "I said OK and they had me call within 30 minutes of dropping this bomb."

"That night he was showing me a bunch of papers, but we're talking four days after the fact." Silva said she had already spoken to Lewis on Monday though and at that point he "didn't have an inkling that anything was wrong."