Beauty queen receives 2nd blackmail package

updated 9:37 a.m. ET July 9, 2007

TRENTON, N.J. - Miss New Jersey has received a second threatening package from someone trying to blackmail her into relinquishing her crown, her attorney says.

Anthony Caruso, an attorney for Amy Polumbo, said that he was notified about the package Saturday and that it contained a threatening letter and possibly new photographs of the 22-year-old woman.

Caruso would not comment Sunday on the exact contents of the package or say who received it, but said he had given it to state investigators.

Polumbo announced Thursday that someone was trying to blackmail her with old photographs and demanding that she give up her crown by Friday. The student at Wagner College in New York did not step down and has declined to comment publicly beyond her announcement.

Caruso did not say what the first set of photos showed, but he said Friday said that it was the captions on the photographs that troubled Polumbo, not the images. He would not reveal what the captions said.

The first runner-up to Polumbo in the Miss New Jersey pageant in June denied any involvement in the blackmail scheme and said she hoped the scandal wouldn’t affect future competitions.

“I wish only the best for Amy and her family at this time,” Ronica Licciardello told the New York Post and New York Daily News.

A spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general said Friday that his office would not confirm an investigation. The phone rang unanswered Sunday in a call to another spokesman.

Polumbo is to represent New Jersey in the next Miss America pageant.

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