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Miss New Jersey Probe Widens

Caller to Florida radio station claimed knowledge of blackmail plot

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Miss New Jersey Probe Widens

JULY 13--The law enforcement hunt for whoever's blackmailing Miss New Jersey has stretched to Florida, where a radio station has been subpoenaed for a tape of a man who called Tuesday morning and claimed to have details of the plot to shake down beauty queen Amy Polumbo. The subpoena, a copy of which you'll find below, was sent yesterday to WXTB, a Clear Channel station in Tampa, by an investigator with New Jersey's Division of Criminal Justice. The investigator, George Delgrosso, told TSG that the listener's call was a lead probers were tracking down, but he declined further comment. The call to WXTV's morning show came a day after host Jason 'Buckethead' Bailey received an e-mail from a listener who had heard Bailey and his cohorts discussing the Polumbo case Monday morning. On Tuesday, the listener, identified only as 'CJ,' called in and claimed that, days earlier, an acquaintance showed him incriminating Polumbo photos and a blackmail letter that the acquaintance said he sent to the 2007 pageant winner. The caller claimed that the photos showed Polumbo topless, smoking a 'blunt,' and making out with another woman. No such images, of course, were included in the pictures Polumbo revealed yesterday on NBC's Today Show. 'CJ' also alleged that the blackmailer was a male friend of Polumbo's who had performed with her in several theatrical productions and was currently appearing in a stage show at a Pennsylvania amusement park. The tape is expected to be played for Polumbo to determine if she recognizes the voice of 'CJ,' who claimed to have gone to Toms River High School North with the pageant winner. However, calling his account into question, Anthony Caruso, Polumbo's lawyer, told TSG that she never attended that school. In fact, Polumbo graduated from a high school in Howell, a south Jersey town close to Toms River. (1 page)