In my state, I had to test judge 2 times before I given the OK. Your scores are suposed to be withing 90% of the head judges scores. My State's head judge is also a National judge. Even once your an NPC judge, the head judge will still "look" at all the scores to make sure everything is ok and favorites are not being played. Say 6 judges scored an athlete anywhere from 5th-6th place votes and another judge scored them in 2nd...this will raise suspicion and something will be done. Once your an NPC judge doesn't always mean you will be.
On the Bbing background...everyone that I know that judges has competed at one time or another. However, I can admit that it doesn't make them a better judge. I know a top National level Bber who is a judge and his scores are some of the worst I've ever seen. I guess this can be realated to Chad Nicholls prep. Chad's one of the best prep gurus in the world, but really hasn't done much as far as Bbing goes.
BBing is such a subjective sport, especially the female side of things right now. We all have guidelines to follow, but usually two people don't see it exactly the same. Did she ask any of the judges why she placed the way she did? If she was at the top of the class, they should all be able to tell her why. The top 10, I'm always good for...but honestly it's always hard for me to tell someone that placed 18th out of 25 guys wanting to know why he was placed low and what he needs to work on.