Former runner-up for the Miss Delaware pageant, Brittany Lewis, was awarded the crown after original winner, Amanda Longacre, was stripped of her crown due to her age. (Published Friday, June 27, 2014) 
 
 Amanda Longacre, a long-time Delaware resident, has been stripped of her title as Miss Delaware 2014 because she's too old. 
 
 At least that's what pageant officials are saying less than two weeks after she was crowned. 
 
 The 24-year-old Bear resident says she signed her contract, with her age and birthday clearly stated, and a member of the board signed off on that contract on a local, state and national level. 
 
 Carolyn Nelson, media relations coordinator for the Miss Delaware organization, confirms that that Longacre did nothing wrong and had accurately reported her birth date on applications. 
 
 Still, on Tuesday, she was notified by pageant officials that her age was an issue. She was told she will not able to compete in the Miss America Pageant next September and that she was being stripped of her title, all prizes associated with that title, as well as $11,000 in scholarship money. Scholarship money that was going to help her pursue her master's degree in Social Work. 
 
 “They deleted me off of everything, they’re ignoring me,” Longacre said. “They deleted me off the [Facebook] group and put up a press release announcing a new Miss Delaware.” 
 
 Longacre competed twice without any issues regarding age or eligibility -- once was on the local level and again on the state level. Her birth certificate, license and social security card were provided and verified by the organization. 
 
 Longacre says she was told from the beginning that her age was not an issue, that as long as she was 24 while on the Miss America stage, she was good to go. 
 
 Pageant officials, however, say she has exceeded the age requirement in order to be eligible to compete in Miss America, even though she won't turn 25 until after the pageant on October 22. 
 
 “I was told I could compete by people who have been doing this for 30 years,” Longacre said. “I did everything right and it was all in front of them.” 
 
 Longacre was in a program for her master's at the University of Pennsylvania and had an internship at the Department of Justice. When she signed her Miss Delaware contract, she notified both groups that she wouldn’t be able to participate for a year while she fulfilled her duties as pageant winner. Now that she has been stripped of her title, she is unsure if they will take her back. 
 
 “I can fulfill this job,” she said. “I did nothing morally or ethically wrong. Now I am getting all the repercussions.” 
 
 Longacre has yet to receive any information from Miss America and there is no announcement on the Miss America Organization Facebook page. 
 
 First runner-up Brittany Lewis of Wilmington will be awarded the crown at a news conference at Dover Downs 7:30 p.m. Thursday night. ||||| The class action lawsuit filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery seeks $3 million in damages 
 
 Amanda Longacre of Bear waves to the crowd after being crowned Miss Delaware at Dover Downs on June 14. (Photo: JASON MINTO/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS ) Story Highlights Last month, Amanda Longacre was disqualified and first-runner up Brittany Lewis was elevated to the state crown 
 
 She also seeks a waiver so she can compete for Miss America in September 
 
 Former Miss Delaware Amanda Longacre, booted from the crown for being too old, sued the state and national scholarship pageant organizations on Wednesday. 
 
 The lawsuit seeks $3 million in damages – $2.5 million for the class of contestants certified to compete then disqualified, and $500,000 for her – along with restoration of her titles as Miss Pike Creek and Miss Delaware. She also seeks the full year's reign in the state, restoration of her scholarships and an age waiver so she can compete for Miss America in September in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 
 
 "This case has no merit and we will vigorously defend it," said the Miss America Organization in a brief statement, 
 
 Miss Delaware Scholarship Organization spokeswoman Carolyn Nelson said Wednesday night that the group would have no comment on the lawsuit. 
 
 The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Court of Chancery, reveals an awkward and formerly undisclosed moment just after Longacre was stripped of her crown in June, two weeks into her reign. 
 
 EARLIER STORY/VIDEO: Miss Delaware too old; Miss Wilmington steps up 
 
 First, officials told her she was too old and said she had to return her crown, wouldn't get her scholarships and couldn't compete for Miss America. 
 
 Then, the previously unidentified state pageant official who axed her – executive director Debi Wilson was a named defendant in the filing – "offered to make it up to her by hosting a wine and cheese pajama party," the suit says. 
 
 The suit names other pageant winners disqualified after competing and contends pageant officials knowingly recruit ineligible contestants to boost dwindling participation, take advantage of them for fundraising and appearances, then disqualify them. 
 
 The suit details more than 20 appearances Longacre made, cites her additional fundraising for the organization and the facts that she suspended work on her master's degree in social work at University of Pennsylvania for a year, cut her work to part-time and ended internship programs as required by the Miss Delaware organization to fulfill her duties. 
 
 Two days after Longacre was disqualified, first runner-up Brittany Lewis of Wilmington was crowned Miss Delaware in a brief ceremony at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, elevating her to the national contest that gives each contestant a $3,000 scholarship for participating and the chance to win a lot more. 
 
 Longacre, whose only previous pageant experience was for the separate Miss USA competition, says Miss Delaware Scholarship Organization officials recruited her and certified her eligibility after she repeatedly submitted her birth certificate, driver's license and resume – all with her birth date of Oct. 22, 1989 – as she competed successfully first for Miss Pike Creek, then Miss Delaware. 
 
 Lewis also is 24, but she was born July 21, 1990. 
 
 Although state and national pageant websites say those 17-24 are eligible – as the lawsuit notes – state pageant officials said in their one public statement about Longacre's ouster that they discovered after Longacre was crowned that she was too old under Miss America rules. 
 
 Board member and legal counsel Elizabeth Soucek – who was Miss Delaware first runner up in 2007 – has said national contestants could not turn 24 before Dec. 31, meaning they could not have been born before 1990. She called that "a Miss America rule." 
 
 POLL: Should she have sued? 
 
 Soucek told The News Journal after Lewis was crowned that she directed Lewis and state pageant officials not to comment about the situation with Longacre "due to the possibility of pending litigation." She couldn't be reached Wednesday night. 
 
 It was only after Longacre went public with her highly emotional account, first in an interview with The News Journal and then on televised "Today" show, that Soucek said she would get the $9,000 scholarship she earned with the state title. 
 
 Until that time, according to the lawsuit, the only thing the organization had offered Longacre was the "wine and cheese pajama party." 
 
 But when Soucek told The News Journal that Longacre would get $9,000 scholarship from the state title, she was asked about her other scholarship funds for winning Miss Pike Creek andstate contest preliminary events and Miss Congeniality. Soucek then said Longacre would get all her scholarship funds. 
 
 The lawsuit said the Pike Creek title came with a $500 scholarship and her other wins totaled $1,250. 
 
 In detailing Longacre's damages, the suit also said she lost potential career enhancements such as television and guest appearances, also that she had to spend more than $4,500 on expenses such as a voice coach, clothing, hair and makeup. 
 
 Her suit also asks the court to require the pageants to make age requirements clear on their websites and to all potential contestants. 
 
 While her lawsuit does not seek an apology, Longacre told The News Journal she never got one from anyone with the Miss Delaware pageant. 
 
 Her attorney, Mark Billion of Wilmington, said before the suit was filed that they reached out repeatedly to organization officials. 
 
 "Not only did we not get the courtesy of a response," he said, "we haven't gotten anything from them saying she is disqualified." 
 
 Longacre recently said she feels lumped in with pageant winners dethroned for reasons from criminal activity to pornography. "I'm being treated as if I did something morally and ethically wrong," she said. "I'm just really heartbroken." 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1mNdLyJ ||||| DOVER, Del. (AP) — A woman stripped of her Miss Delaware title last month for being too old is suing state pageant officials and the Miss America organization. 
 
 In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Amanda Longacre is seeking to be reinstated as Miss Delaware and to be allowed to compete in the Miss America pageant. She also is seeking $500,000 in damages for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants who she claims were recruited to compete in pageants before being told they were too old. 
 
 Officials say Miss America pageant rules require contestants to be between 17 and 24. Longacre turns 25 on Oct. 22, after this year's national pageant. 
 
 The lawsuit alleges that one or more other contestants in the 2014 Miss Delaware pageant also were too old to compete under those rules. 
 
 "It is a lawsuit without merit and we will defend it vigorously," said Sharon Pearce, president of the Miss America organization. 
 
 State pageant representatives did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.
– Yet another beauty pageant scandal: Less than two weeks after Amanda Longacre was crowned Miss Delaware, she's been stripped of the title because pageant officials say she's too old. Longacre is 24, and will still be 24 when the Miss America pageant is held in September—and she says she was told that as long as she was 24 during the Miss America competition, her age was not an issue. But officials now say that according to the fine print, Miss America can't turn 25 any time in 2014; Longacre's birthday is in October, the Smyrna-Clayton Sun-Times explains. Longacre had no trouble while competing on the local level, and when she advanced to the state level, she says her age and birthday were clearly stated on her contract, which the Miss Delaware Scholarship Organization signed, she tells NBC Philadelphia. The organization verified her birth certificate, license, and social security card before the competition. A media relations coordinator for the Miss Delaware organization even confirms that Longacre didn't do anything wrong, and calls the whole thing "a terrible mistake." After being told on Tuesday she'd be losing her title (plus prizes including $11,000 in scholarship money), Longacre says officials have been "ignoring" her. Making things worse: She had deferred her master's program and her Department of Justice internship for a year so that she could fulfill her Miss Delaware duties. Runner-up Brittany Lewis was crowned the new Miss Delaware last night, MyFox Philly reports.