A beauty queen stripped of her crown for infractions including gaining weight from eating tacos was temporarily reinstated on Friday as Miss San Antonio.
State District Judge Cathy Stryker ruled that Domonique Ramirez, 17, can continue to wear the crown of Miss San Antonio at least through this weekend.
The order keeps Ramirez on the throne pending a hearing next week on whether to reinstate her permanently.
Pageant officials said the 129-pound Ramirez was dethroned after a series of infractions including gaining weight by eating too many tacos. Her contract required that Ramirez stay at the same weight as the day she won the pageant
Other infractions included arriving late to scheduled events, missing some events altogether, bringing a boyfriend to pageant-sponsored events in violation of her contract, and appearing in one modeling session wearing a bridal dress, pageant President Linda Woods said.
"We said absolutely not. You are representing the young women of our society. You cannot be putting on a wedding dress and call yourself Miss San Antonio and think that's cute," Woods said. "She did it anyway."
Ramirez admitted that she had been late once or twice.
"But as far as the numerous accounts they say I was late to, it's untrue," she said.
Pageant organizers had introduced first runner up Ashley Dixon as the new Miss San Antonio before Ramirez filed suit.
"Today was a hurdle that we had to overcome," Ramirez' attorney Luis Vera said following the judge's ruling. "Now we have to finish the race."
Ramirez, 17, had sued organizers of the Miss San Antonio pageant, whose winner gets a shot at becoming Miss Texas and possibly Miss America. Pageant officials removed Ramirez as Miss San Antonio last month after telling the teenager she violated numerous rules of her contract. Dominating that list are allegations that Ramirez didn't heed event schedules and missed appearances. But grabbing the most attention: that the 5-foot-8, 129-pound college student was punished for adding a few inches to her size-2 figure since being crowned in April. Ramirez, who wears a size 2 and is 5-foot-8, said a pageant official told her to "get off the tacos" and lose 13 pounds if she wanted to keep her crown.
This report contains information from Reuters and The Associated Press.