23-year-old Katie Rees, winner of the Miss Nevada USA 2007 beauty pageant, was stopped by Las Vegas police shortly before 3:00am for a traffic violation. She then became physically aggressive towards the arresting officer.

Rees' lawyer Mario Torres denied she had been aggressive and said the beauty queen chipped or lost a tooth when she was forcefully pushed against her vehicle. Rees was charged with speeding, driving with a suspended licence, operating a motor vehicle with suspended licence plates, failure to produce proof of insurance and resisting a police officer. She was released without bail and is due to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court on March 8.

This is not the first time Katie Rees has courted controversy. She was famously stripped of her Miss Nevada 2007 title and banned from competing in the subsequent Miss USA 2007 contest by the Miss Universe Organization and co-owner Donald Trump in December 2006 after photos showing her in various stages of undress at a party in Tampa came to public light.

But Katie isn't the only disgraced American beauty queen. In fact, she joins a fairly long list of champions who have blotted their copy books. Katie Blair, a former Miss Teen USA and spokesperson for charity Mothers Against Drink Driving, was caught drinking while underage in a New York nightclub with fellow beauty queen Tara Conner. Amy Palumbo, the current Miss New Jersey USA, was made to sweat over whether she would be dethroned after posting photos on her Facebook page that showed her acting in what pageant organizers viewed as a non-ladylike manner. Another former Miss New Jersey, Ashley Harder, relinquished her title after she fell pregnant.

But most notorious of all must be former Miss Arizona USA contender Kumari Fulbright. The 25-year-old law school student stands accused of kidnapping, biting and threatening former boyfriend Robert Ergonis with a handgun. If convicted, she faces a long prison sentence thanks to charges of kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated assault.