MISS WISCONSIN CHARGED WITH IDENTITY THEFT & FORCED TO DROP OUT OF THE MISS USA PAGEANT!

A top contender for next month's Miss USA title has dropped out of the pageant after being charged with identity theft.

Shaletta Porterfield, who was set to appear as Miss Wisconsin USA, resigned from the beauty contest on Friday after being charged with three counts of stealing someone's identity for financial gain.

The Madison beauty told investigators she had forged signatures of business owners on advertising contracts while working for a marketing company last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

But business owners got wind of the scheme when the marketing company asked them to proof some ads they hadn't agreed to buy.

Robert Nagel, Porterfield's lawyer, said the beauty queen hatched the bogus plot because she was under a lot of pressure from the company to hit her commission goals.

"It's unfortunate, but she has a lot going for her, and she's ready to move on," Nagel told the paper.

Nagel said Porterfield will probably resolve the charges with an agreement that would allow her to pay fines or fulfill other requirements in order to avoid prosecution.

First runner-up Jordan Morkin, of Green Bay, will represent Wisconsin at the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas in June.

Porterfield's troubles are only the most recent black spot for the annual pageant, which is owned by Donald Trump.

The 2010 winner, Rima Fakih, embarrassed pageant officials after a local radio station in her hometown in Michigan reveled her pole-dancing past.

Fakih, the first-ever Arab-American Miss USA, had won the radio station's "Stripper 101" contest by sexing it up on a stripper pole at a Detroit gentleman's club in 2007.


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