Wednesday 7 January, 2004 at 3:04PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (10)

Yup that's right, US$162million. On December 30th 2003, someone who purchased a ticket at a lotto outlet in South Euclid won this massive jackpot, but the holder of the winning ticket did not immediately come forward. This prompted the lotto organizers to ask people in that area to recheck their tickets. Of course with that amount of money at stake I guess it's not surprising that someone had to try and scam it.

In the news shortly after came the story of Elecia Battle, who claimed in a police report that she dropped her purse as she left a convenience store after buying the ticket and only realized after the drawing that the ticket was missing.

"My ticket was lost. I do recall all the numbers. They are all somehow family related. No one can tell me what I did and did not play. I did it honestly and I have no doubt."

Shortly after this news item broke, the holder of the winning ticket, Rebecca Jemison of South Euclid, fronted up with the real ticket. She also provided another lottery ticket bought at the same time and had a ticket from a previous drawing with the same numbers. Proof positive if you ask me.

"I was angry at first, but not worried at all,'' Jemison said. "I knew what I possessed."

On Tuesday (yesterday) Rebecca Jemison was declared rightful winner of the Dec. 30 drawing, qualifying her for a lump-sum payment of $67.2 million after taxes ..damn! I think the US Govt should buy their own friggin lotto tickets - in NZ lottery winnings are tax free.

Later on Tuesday Elecia Battle sued, asking a judge to block the lottery from paying Jemison. What has now come to light is that Battle has prior charges of credit card fraud and assault. Police are now investigating whether she lied in the police report - a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in jail. When questioned about her past, Battle was defensive:

"I'm done with that,'' said Battle, "I paid the fine. That's end of story. It makes me look like I'm a bad person. Everybody has bad in the past. I'm not even worried about that, really. I never did any jail time for that.''

Oooo-kay. Yup we've all committed assault and credit card fraud in the past, right? Wrong. This person needs to admit when she's been caught out, because it's pretty damn obvious, especially when the winner provides supporting evidence of a ticket from a previous drawing with the same numbers as well as another ticket bought at the same time as the winning ticket. Trying to sue the rightful winner now and not backing down is just digging her own grave. Regardless of the evidence, the lottery ticket is a bearer note, which means whoever turns in a valid ticket is legally entitled to the winnings, end of story.

I would like to say, "Nice try, but no cigar." except that it wasn't.