A former Russian beauty queen is facing deportation from the United States over drug and shoplifting charges.
Anna Malova, 39, who won the Miss Russia crown in 1998, is charged in New York with two counts of forging drug prescriptions and one count of shoplifting.
Malova, who has lived in New York since 1999 and has U.S. permanent-resident status, could be deported if convicted on the charges.
Her attorney is trying to switch her case to a court-supervised drug-rehabilitation program where the charges could be eventually dismissed if she gets clean and does community work.
But prosecutors in the case are taking a hard stand after Malova arrived late for court-ordered evaluation related to the prescription-drug charges.