There’s this host of an Outdoor Channel show, who also does shooting tips for a shotgun company. While on a bear-hunting trip for the show, the star messed up in a big way, shot too many bears, and cooked up a scheme with the guides to make it look like it never happened.

The penalty for the cover-up is greater than the penalty for the crime, and it got all of them in trouble.

And none of the media covering the story can talk about it without saying “beauty queen.”

(You know. Your parents talk you into trying one tiny pageant, and you never live it down. Ask Emmy Lou Harris about being Miss Woodbridge. Maybe better, don’t ask her. Anyway, Sarah Palin doesn’t play up Miss Wasilla. You’ll never hear Donald Trump mention Little Mr. Queens.)

The star is Theresa Vail, Miss Kansas 2013. Her pageant history is actually more relevant than usual, since that’s how she got in the public eye and promoted her love of hunting (and support for the NRA).

Vail was a bowhunter when she vied for Miss Leavenworth County in 2012 She intended her display of talent to be archery. A few days before the contest, she learned that talents could not involve projectiles. (They lost too many judges?) She decided to sing, found the aria “Nessun Dorma” on YouTube, and learned to perform it “in 48 hours.” She won.

She won Miss Kansas in 2013, and in 2014 went for Miss America. She had refined her message, which was “Empowering Women: Overcoming Stereotypes and Breaking Barriers.” She said going hunting with her father as a kid had given her the confidence to stand up under bullying so severe she “nearly took my own life.” She said she wanted to break stereotypes, with the hunting stuff, and with the fact that she was in the Kansas Army National Guard and chose not to use concealer on her giant Serenity Prayer tattoo.

She made the top 10, and was eliminated after the talent section in which she again sang “Nessun Dorma.” Which by then she’d had time to work on. Many people were impressed that she tried to sing opera, or impressed by her vocal range, but others were less charmed. They said she was shrill. Screechy. They said her lack of training showed. The Schmopera blog confined themselves to saying “predictably not great.” That wasn’t snobbery about beauty pageants: they liked Laura “Miss Wisconsin” Kaeppeler ‘s performance of “Il bacio” in 2012, and Betty “Miss Georgia” Cantrell’s version of “Tu? tu? piccolo iddio” in 2015.

Her enthusiasm for hunting and shooting along with her message of empowerment were attractive to “sporting” industries. She told Fox411 “The Second Amendment is my life.” She also speaks well of God.

The Outdoor Channel created a show around her, Limitless with Theresa Vail. It “presents the compelling story of a young, grass roots, red-blooded, all-American woman who is on a mission to overcome stereotypes, break barriers, and use her life story as a platform to help transform people’s opinions of all the things a woman should, could and can be.” (I am personally inspired by her hatred of pink camo.)

Watch to see Vail do “a 26.2 mile trek in the Bataan Death March in New Mexico, climb Wyoming’s notorious “Devil’s Tower,” head to the coast of British Columbia in search of grizzlies, and skydive with the West Point Parachute Team.”

Franchi, an Italian gun manufacturer and a sponsor of Limitless, hired her as a “prostaffer” to do videos giving tips on how to make a crossing shot when shooting doves, how to make a straight-away shot, and how to choose a choke tube for your shotgun.

During the shoot for the above-mentioned trip “in search of grizzlies,” which went to Alaska instead of BC, Vail got a tag to shoot a grizzly. With experienced guides Michael “Wade” Renfro and Joseph Miller, she sallied forth, and encountered at least two bears.

She shot and wounded a male bear (boar). To finish him off, she shot again, but instead hit another bear entirely, a female (sow). Exactly what happened has not been told, but both bears ended up dead. Alaskan law specifies that is legal to kill an adult sow bear unless she has cubs with her, but it also says you can’t kill more than one bear a year (or every 4 years in other parts of the state).

Breaking game laws might be interesting television, but it isn’t good publicity for anyone.

Vail, Renfro, and Miller illegally obtained a second tag, which was backdated, presumably to the previous year. That made it look as if both bears had been legally killed.

A week or two later, Vail and the crew told the Outdoor Channel – and the State of Alaska – what had happened. Outdoor Channel pulled the episode from upcoming shows. The State charged Vail with taking a brown or grizzly bear without a tag, and with second-degree unsworn falsification. Misdemeanors. Renfro and Miller were charged with failing to report a hunting violation, with committing, aiding or allowing a violation, and – in Renfro’s case – second-degree unsworn falsification.

A hearing in December, has been put off until January. In the meantime, Vail made an apology:

This May, during an Alaskan guided bear hunt, I unintentionally harvested a second bear while attempting a follow up shot. I then followed poor advice and allowed the second bear to be improperly tagged. A few days later, the film crew and I reported the incident and have since fully cooperated with the proper authorities.

I am deeply sorry for my mistakes.

A bad apology. She dodges full responsibility. Without naming names, she blames those who gave her poor advice on this guided hunt. She minimizes the event. Saying she “harvested” a bear instead of shooting or killing a bear is such routine wording that she probably didn’t realize it’s a euphemism. She doesn’t say she did anything wrong, she just “allowed” wrong things to be done. But “improper” minimizes the faking and lying to get the second tag. “A few days” is also minimizing, since the hunt was from May 18-27 and the violation was reported to Alaska Wildlife Troopers on June 3^rd.

It’s probably true she got poor advice, but she made the poor decision to follow that advice.

Maybe she’ll do a better apology in January.

I am personally maddened by the vagueness. How do you shoot the wrong bear? Did the female throw herself in front of the male? Did the injured male hide behind the female? Did the two of them run off at high speed, forcing a distant shot at a fleeing target? We may never be told, if the same level of vague description is permitted in court.

A shame, for those of us who are seeking hunting tips.

(Thanks to Emily Gertz, for pointing us to this one.)

(Also, I made up the thing about Little Mr. Queens.)