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Miss USA 2010 says Miss USA 1995 is behind Miss USA 2014's carpetbagging problems

By Hollie McKay

LOS ANGELES – Miss USA 2010 says Miss USA 1995 is behind Miss USA 2014's carpetbagging problems. Let us explain.

Miss USA 2010, Rima Fakih, has come to the defense of Miss USA 2014, Nia Sanchez, who was accused of carpetbagging to win the Miss Nevada pageant. Fakih says the director of the Miss Nevada pageant, Shanna Moakler, who was Miss USA in 1995, is the one who should be getting called out. “Many of the girls that you see competing for state titles have moved around. My problem is the people who are organizing the pageant. Did they pick her? Are they the ones who just want to win the title? Maybe it is not Miss USA’s fault,” Fakih told FOX411 in a video interview. “Maybe it is the person who chose her to come and compete for the state.” “Shanna should be the hot seat,” Fakih added. “We should ask her why she is picking girls to compete for her pageant.”

Shanna Moakler took over the Nevada pageant in 2011 after co-directing the Miss California pageant for years. Moakler has remained tight-lipped on the controversy, and repeated requests to her reps and the Miss Nevada office for comment have not been returned. But according to a pageant insider, Moakler has had her eye on Sanchez since she first competed for Miss California years ago. “Shanna often talked about how beautiful Nia was while she was competing in California,” said the source. A look at this year’s Miss Nevada contestants shows that several other former California competitors – Mary Kate Fitzpatrick, Cierra Jackson, Susan Ramanishin and Brittany McGowan – also competed alongside Sanchez for Miss Nevada 2014. Norm Clarke wrote in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the day after the pageant at Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV, he received an email from a disgruntled pageant follower that “California license plates out-numbered Nevada’s in the parking lot” and that “the ‘hoppers’ have taken over.”

Sanchez has denied allegations of carpetbagging, telling FOX411 she lived in Nevada for almost 18 months before scooping the state title. Later, however, she failed to name the capital of Nevada – Carson City -- in a radio interview. 

Diana Falzone contributed to this report.

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Miss USA 2014: Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez Wins -- How'd She Do During the Interview?

BY JUSTIN RAVITZ

It would be wise not to get on the bad side of Miss USA 2014: She holds a fourth degree back belt in taekwondo! At the 63rd annual Miss USA pageant—broadcast live on Sunday, June 9 from the Baton Rouge Civic Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez walked away with the coveted crown.

The pretty martial artist, 24, defeated 50 other beauty queens to win this year's pageant following swimsuit, evening gown and interview portions. and explained that she took up taekwondo as a means to defend herself and bolster her confidence after spending time as a young girl in a women's shelter with her mom. Today, Sanchez volunteers at similar shelters and teachers women and kids to defend themselves against what she called "stranger danger" "I relate to them on a personal level because I've been there myself," she said.

Sanchez also avoided typical beauty-pageant-embarassment when fielding tricky questions from celeb judges. Judge Rumer Willis asked about the high rate of sexual assault on college campuses. "I believe that some colleges may potentially be afraid of having a bad reputation and that would be a reason it could be swept under the rug, because they don't want that to come out into the public," she said. "But I think more awareness is very important so women can learn how to protect themselves. Myself, as a fourth-degree black belt, I learned from a young age that you need to be confident and be able to defend yourself. And I think that's something that we should start to really implement for a lot of women."

Given the crown by Miss USA 2013 Erin Brady, Sanchez bested first runner-up Audra Mari (Miss North Dakota) plus fellow finalists Miss Georgia, Miss Louisiana, Miss Florida and Miss Iowa. Sanchez will go on to compete in the Miss Universe competition this fall.