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As we showed you on Monday night, Reena Usher is the 2009 Queen of the Bay. The Stann Creek native is from a long family line of Beauty Queens – and there’s no doubt she fits right in. But according to the parents of the first runner up, Kiasha Bevans, their daughter was robbed of the crown she deserves. Now sour grapes after a pageant are nothing new. Over the years we’ve covered many challenges in this most subjective field. This time though, Kiasha’s family is pointing to a material and manifest error in judgment. They explained it to us yesterday.

Elvis Bevans, Parent
“I am not a sore parent to say that my daughter came in second and that I am not happy with that. That’s great, that’s excellent. I was the type of person that told my common law girlfriend to leave it at that but at the same time knowing that my daughter out rightly got cheated by so many flaws from the very same young lady. No disrespect to her, she is a nice young lady, they are all competing in a competition. But up to today, the pageant took place on Saturday, and up to today people are still meeting us and telling us they cheated your daughter, they cheated your daughter.”

Peggy Good, Parent
“The biggest part of this contest was the curtsy and our dispute is, I don’t think this young lady from Stann Creek, Miss Stann Creek was beating my daughter by thirty points because if she did, it is curtsy, it is not the bow. If she did the bow, which she did, worth 25 points, and that is the rule that you shouldn’t do the bow you should do the curtsy, that’s automatically zero. So if you took that zero from the points she gained, according to them it was close with my daughter, how come my daughter still lost? Now the difference is with a bow you go down and you nod your head. That is a bow, acknowledging that person.

Like when the other day they had a big thing with Obama when he went and acknowledged some one of the Prime Ministers and he shouldn’t have done that. The curtsy, or I do not know they say it, but the curtsy is you go down straight with your back straight and something with the hand and you come up straight, you don’t do no acknowledgment to no one. And what that young lady did that night, I think you videoed it – she went down, she acknowledged the queen first and then she acknowledged the left and she acknowledged the right and she acknowledged in front of her.”

Elvis Bevans,
“I deh yah because I feel discriminated and that a big discrimination gaan on with the selection of the Queen of the Bay. If we had represented maybe Miss Buttonwood Bay or an environment that is a bit more developed than Jane Usher Boulevard or maybe that…those are just things which people are telling us why it could be seh didn’t win. But we would just like to see the judges’ tabulations, the true tabulations and how the contestants gained and lost points and how much.”

Jules Vasquez,
“But how will you get closure on this because it seems to me the only way you will get closure is if they say you know what, your daughter wins?”

Elvis Bevans,
“Jules that is what exactly happened. My daughter outright win in the eyes of so many patriotic Belizeans and instead of they having the courage to speak out, all they said to us was they thief your daughter.”

Peggy Good,
“I don’t expect they will change nothing because I know they won’t do it but, and I categorically say but, my daughter on my behalf and her family and close friends, deserves the recognition because she deserves the crown. Now Miss Stann Creek could have it, its not a problem, but you know what will hurt me is that September day when the crown is taken off the reigning queen’s head and it is put on her head when knowing and the public know that it is my daughter’s crown. But we aren’t fighting for the crown, we are just fighting for the recognition of Kiasha Shantay Bevans and the way how I said that just now Jules, I feel like I was in Queen of the Bay just now, to geez.”

We were unable to reach pageant organizer Miss Emma for comment. But Reena Usher will be crowned tomorrow morning at the Memorial Park and you can see it live here on Channel 7.