There She Isn't...Miss America

Looks like Miss America 2007/America's Most Wanted hostess
Lauren Nelson is endangering 12 court cases by refusing to travel to
Long Island to testify in them (in her defense, it is Long
Island). Nelson posed as a 13-year-old girl in Internet chat rooms to
lure online sex criminals, chatting with them and arranging for them to
show up at a house where they were arrested.



[q
url="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liusa0501,0,218808,print.story?coll=ny-main-bigpix"]Det.
Sgt. John Cowie of Suffolk's computer crimes unit said police made it
clear to Nelson "that she's part of an undercover investigation and
there may be more expected of her down the road." As to the specific
issue of Nelson being required to return to Suffolk and testify, Cowie
said, "That's between her and the D.A.'s office."



"I don't think anybody in the police department seriously thought of
the ramifications here," said Spota. "Had they consulted with our
office, we would have told them that she's potentially a witness in the
case."



Officials with the Miss America Organization did not return several
calls for comment Monday. Spota said his office was trying to contact
Nelson Monday, but was unable to do so. "Her agents have told us that
she's not coming back to testify," Spota said.



Several attorneys representing the 11 men arrested in the sting said
they don't intend to give Nelson a choice. They said they plan to
subpoena Nelson, and if she failed to appear at any court date, she
could be held in contempt and face criminal charges herself.



"You've now made Miss America a witness," said attorney Michael Brown,
of Central Islip, who represents Ronald Stahl, 43, of Holbrook -- one
of the 11 men nabbed in the sting.



"If Miss America is going to be saying that, 'This is the person I had
a chat with,' I absolutely have the right to cross-examine her,' " said
Brown, who said the possible complications are just one of the many
reasons police usually avoid recruiting civilians -- much less
celebrities -- to assist in busts.



"They use undercover detectives," Brown said. "They don't use a pretty blonde."

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