CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Allison Williams, a former West Virginia beauty queen who in 2005 filed suit against several dozen Internet businesses she alleges sold porn videos that mistakenly used her name and likeness, has been awarded $7.2 million by a jury.

Williams originally filed suit against 59 defendants, claiming they had disseminated a videotape that purportedly showed the 2003 Miss West Virginia engaging in explicit sex acts in the back of a television news truck.

It took a year from the time the videos were posted to the Internet for Williams’ attorneys to track down all of the named websites, because many of their owners used aliases.

“This has been a nightmare,” Williams stated at the time. “The woman in the video is not me. She doesn’t even look like me. I have never participated in any pornographic video.”

According to an Associated Press report, “The nine defendants found liable during a bench trial are Castle Company Property Ltd., The Moles Trust, Russell M. Moles, Gwendoline E. Moles and Guy Blomberg, all of Australia; Vidbidness Inc. and Eric Ridley of California; and Etrax Productions and Ronald Yates of Texas,” none of which participated in the trial or were represented by counsel.

Charges against the remaining 28 original defendants were dismissed by U.S. District Judge Irene M. Kelley, a ruling Williams is appealing.

In the intervening years, Williams has graduated from law school and is preparing to take the bar exam in West Virginia.