Police back off arrests in Miss P.R. pageant scandal
Prosecutors still lack the evidence necessary to charge anyone
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TODAY: Poisoned pageant? Nov. 28, 2007: Ingrid Marie Rivera talks to TODAY’s Meredith Vieira for the first time about the supposed pepper spray incident and what’s next for her. Today show |
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Prosecutors still lack the evidence necessary to charge anyone with sabotaging a beauty pageant contestant by dousing her garments with pepper spray, Puerto Rico's top police official said Wednesday.
"It is an extremely weak case," Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo told reporters.
Toledo's comments reverse claims made Tuesday by a lead investigator in the attack on Ingrid Marie Rivera, winner of November's Miss Puerto Rico Universe competition, who said Tuesday that arrests of two pageant employees were imminent.
Rivera and pageant organizers claimed that saboteurs had conspired to torpedo her bid for the crown by tainting her clothes and makeup kit with pepper spray, causing her to break out in hives. The 24-year-old won the pageant regardless.
The black gown and bathing suit she wore during the competition's final round tested positive for pepper spray last month, weeks after another dress and makeup brush tested negative.
The tale of backstage backstabbing drew worldwide media attention, winning Rivera interviews on high-profile TV programs including "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and NBC's TODAY.
In the future, pageant organizers will screen volunteers and employees more carefully, competition director Magali Febles said.
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