Melissa King, the Delaware teen beauty pageant winner who gave up her crown in a sex-tape scandal, pleaded guilty to an alcohol possession citation and paid a $100 fine, paving the way for her to get a fresh start in life by attending college in the fall, her attorney said.

King, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of underage alcohol possession April 22 in a Maryland District Court. A theft charge, in which police alleged she stole money from a cash box on a city bus, was dropped because of a lack of evidence, said Assistant State’s Attorney Paul Haskell.

King’s attorney, J. Gregory Hannigan, said outside the courtroom that his client’s boyfriend, David Stour, paid the fine of $100 and court costs of $40.

The former Miss Delaware Teen USA plans to be a college freshman this fall.

“So that she can be a normal freshman, we’re going to keep the name quiet,” Hannigan said in not disclosing the name of the school, but he added it was in a Western state.

King resigned when a sex video allegedly starring her appeared online. She has not discussed the video since initially denying the woman in it is her.

Hannigan said he instructed King not to answer questions about it. “In time, a statement will be made about that,” he said.

The video was posted on a porn website in November, but it wasn’t until the site added a line in February saying it showed “Miss Teen Delaware” that unwanted attention was brought on King and the Miss Teen USA pageant, overseen by businessman Donald Trump and NBC Universal.

She resigned Feb. 26, a few days after the scandal broke open, and was succeeded by runner-up Hailey Lawler, an 18-year-old from Newark who will compete in the Miss Teen USA contest in August.

As Hannigan described it, the Aug. 2, 2012, alcohol citation stemmed from a traffic stop as King was driving from a job as a waitress in Ocean City back to her Bethany Beach-area home. A police officer found a bottle of rum in the pickup truck she was driving.

The truck and the rum were her father’s, Hannigan told reporters. But King accepted legal responsibility because she was driving the vehicle, he said.

The dropped theft charge stemmed from a bus ride King and a friend took in Ocean City on June 7, 2012.

Hannigan said an Ocean City police officer on the bus mistook King and her friend paying their fares and then retrieving their money after deciding not to ride the bus as stealing from the cash box.

Outside the courtroom, King told reporters, “I feel fine.”

After attending college, she said, “she’s going to go on to a journalism career.”

Otherwise, King remained quiet while Hannigan spoke as her representative.

“Miss King is very relieved these charges are taken care of,” he said.

In addition to imposing the fine, Judge Daniel R. Mumford sentenced the former pageant titleholder to a year’s probation.

While on probation, “the only thing she has to do is what any citizen would do — no criminal violations,” Hannigan said.