PAGEANT VP ARRESTED ON SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES

The poor folks at the Miss South Carolina pageant just can’t catch a break.

Less than a year ago, former Miss Teen South Carolina Lauren Caitlin Upton became the laughing stock of the nation courtesy of her excessively blond moment. And now, a much more serious scandal has erupted that has a top official with the Miss SC pageant in jail on charges that he sexually abused a young girl at an Easley hotel three years ago.

Joseph Pettigrew Sanders, 44, of 237 Sanders Road in Liberty, was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 11 in connection with a 12-year-old girl’s complaint this summer that she was molested in an Easley Comfort Inn sometime during 2005, according to arrest warrants.

Also charged is Anita Jordan Gearhart, 52, who faces two counts of unlawful conduct with a child, according to warrants, which list her address as the same as Sanders’.

On Friday, Easley Police Maj. Tim Tollison said Sanders is associated with the pageant but that the alleged misconduct didn’t occur as part of pageant activities. [ERIC CONNOR - Greenville News]

Sanders’ father is the pageant’s president and CEO.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so I will give this guy the benefit of the doubt here. But if this proves true, it goes without saying that this will be yet another black eye for this organization. Only this time, nobody will be laughing.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Around the state. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.