Is Miss Washington Too Old? Judge Says No -- Age Won't Bar Her From Miss USA Pageant

Here she comes - after five months of legal battling - Miss Washington.

A federal judge in Seattle yesterday ruled that Staci Baldwin, the 27-year-old pageant winner who was told by officials that she was too old to compete in the Miss USA pageant, can keep her state title and also represent Washington in February's national pageant.

Now, with the order from U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly, the world's the limit for Baldwin. If she wins the Miss USA pageant in Texas, Zilly's order guarantees her the right to try for Miss Universe.

"The message is 27 years of age is not a legitimate reason to keep someone out of the Miss USA pageant," said Jeffrey Smyth, Baldwin's attorney.

Officials from New York's Madison Square Garden and the Miss Universe pageants, which licensed the state crown Baldwin won in April, had not yet reviewed Zilly's order, an attorney said. Miss Universe and Miss USA pageant officials had maintained that their age guidelines, which say all contestants have to be between 18 and 26, should be upheld.

"Our goal all along has been to get it resolved in time for the 1996 pageant," said Stephen Rummage, attorney for the pageant. "But we have a rule, and we believe the rule ought to be enforced."

A month after she won the Miss Washington title, Baldwin was told by local pageant officials that she'd have to give the crown back because she'd be 27 by this February's pageant - a year too old to compete, according to pageant guidelines. But Baldwin disagreed, arguing that she'd been completely honest about her age on all entry forms and had won the title fair and square. And besides, she reasoned, age should not come before beauty.

Baldwin, born June 11, 1968, had stated her age on entry forms she submitted with Oregon Pageants Inc., the organization that ran the Miss Washington contest.

But after winning the crown in April, Baldwin, of Kirkland, was told by an Oregon Pageants official that her June birthday would make her too old for the national pageant.