Former beauty queen’s bail set at $10,000
A judge set bail at $10,000 Wednesday for Katherine Nicole Rees, a former beauty queen stripped of her Miss Nevada USA title, who is facing a series of drug charges.
Rees, 30, is charged with four felonies: trafficking in a controlled substance, sale of a controlled substance, and two counts of conspiracy to violate the uniform controlled substances act.
Court papers filed last week in Las Vegas Justice Court state that Rees sold to someone identified only as "J. Peacock" methamphetamine on Sept. 22. Prosecutor Binu Palal said Rees was part of an "ongoing drug dealing operation," and she told an undercover police offer to contact her if he needed meth.
A month later, Rees was found with 5.3 grams of methamphetamine. The criminal complaint also stated that Rees conspired with "unknown co-conspirators."
Her defense attorney, Warren Geller, suggested that a police informant, someone Rees had known, contacted her repeatedly about the drug.
"From our perspective this looks like a circumstance where it‘s the government actually creating crime by continually needling someone and trying to encourage them to engage in this behavior," Geller said.
Should Rees make bail, she must submit to weekly drug tests, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe Sciscento ordered.
Rees won the title of Miss Nevada USA 2007 but was stripped of that crown after scandalous photos surfaced of her at a Florida nightclub.
In 2008, Rees was charged with for resisting arrest after a traffic stop in Las Vegas.
A year and a half later, Rees appeared on an Australian television show called Border Security: Australia‘s Front Line. Customs officers questioned her at the Sydney airport after swabs of her laptop and Louis Vuitton bag tested positive for cocaine and methamphetamine.
"I don‘t do drugs," Rees said on the show. "I don‘t use cocaine. I don‘t use any kind of pill, no kind of Xanax, no anything. I don‘t use anything."
She was released without being charged.
In 2012, Rees pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a drug not for interstate commerce and Las Vegas prosecutors agreed to dismiss a drug paraphernalia and marijuana charge. She was ordered to stay out of trouble and undergo drug counseling, which she completed, according to court records.
"This isn‘t the defendant‘s first foray into the court system or with drugs," Palal told the judge Wednesday.
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
