Woman Sues to Block $162 Million Payout

Jan 6, 2004, 5:03 pm (16 comments)

Mega Millions

A hospital worker came forward Tuesday and collected a $162 million lottery jackpot, and another woman who told authorities she bought the winning ticket but lost it has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt any payout to the winner.

Rebecca Jemison, 34, of suburban South Euclid, turned in the ticket for the 11-state Mega Millions jackpot at Ohio Lottery headquarters. The lottery validated it Tuesday as the sole winning ticket for the drawing.

The woman with the competing claim, Elecia Battle, filed a lawsuit later Tuesday asking a Cuyahoga County judge to block the lottery from paying Jemison.

"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," Battle told The Associated Press at the office of her attorney, Sheldon Starke.

Earlier, Jemison said the competing claim by Battle, 40, of Cleveland, prompted her to quit stalling and collect the prize from the Dec. 30 drawing.

Police, who originally had said Battle's story was credible, said they were investigating whether she had lied in a police report, a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in jail.

Dennis G. Kennedy, director of the Ohio Lottery, said the lottery was confident Jemison had purchased the ticket, not found it.

Jemison provided another lottery ticket purchased at the same time and location and had a lottery ticket that showed she had played the same numbers in the prior drawing, Kennedy said.

AP

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DoubleDown

Let the fur fly !!!!

 

It sure will be interesting to see how this turns out.

If the lady that says she lost the ticket was making it up, would she further jeopardize herself with a lawsuit ? 

Hmmmmm

DD

RJOh's avatarRJOh

She really has no choice now, she has to prove she lost the ticket or really thought she did and made an honest mistake or she could be charged with knowingly making false statements in a police report and serve some jail time.  If she doesn't make some effort to stand behind her story, she will make it clear that she never really believed it.

RJOh

Thomas Covenant's avatarThomas Covenant

Nope, what she is going to do is tie up the money in court until the real winner gets tired of everything and offers a payoff. Good thing the Lottery people already vadidated the ticket, at least the real winner doesn't have to worry about the 180 day time limit.

emilyg's avataremilyg

look at her rap sheet.

DoubleDown
Quote: Originally posted by DoubleDown on January 06, 2004



 

 

If the lady that says she lost the ticket was making it up, would she further jeopardize herself with a lawsuit ? 

Hmmmmm

 

Looks like she may have taken all of the suspense out of this.....

( allegedly )

DD

 




winsumloosesum's avatarwinsumloosesum

Is this a new trend in claiming tickets?

If the store where this ticket has any video surveilence it would be quite interesting.

Anyone could have a claim to this ticket or a co-worker in a pool.

What is this world coming to!!

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

Greedy, shiftless, no-accounts who feel like the world owes them something..

konane's avatarkonane

I believe there may be some lessons for us with this.  Seems a good idea to keep our non winning tickets, especially if we play the same numbers all the time.  They can be used as a direct expense agains wins which an accountant or tax attorney can clarify how.

Also on big games you can ask ticket vendor for a talley slip which I believe may show the ticket number and gives a run up of the amount you spent on tickets.   

luckycat's avatarluckycat

think about it give her the benifit it possible she did lose the ticket.

maybe it happen like this:

she buy ticket goes out drops her purse ticket falls out. ok she did not realize it fell out. goes home.

now some man comes by and finds the ticket, goes into store(man on tv first said a man came into store>he went with him to check numbers, man leaves.

now this man that helped him look at win numbers, saw the ticket, saw the man so he would be the 1  person to id the man. WHERE IS HE NOW?

now if this man that came in to check his ticket, and it was the ticket he found

could that man be the husband of the lady who claimed today??

it could be possible the ticket was lost as said,

with security the uppermost thing in all business>WHY was the store's security video  BROKEN??

I feel its possible the lady might have lost the ticket?? also if u hesrd the double talk on tv today. lottery commision said she had been playing lottery for many years, she said when question that she had only been playing the lottery for 2 years> about as long as mm has been in ohio. earlier lottery commision said she had played the same numbers repeatly/ in fact she said  they were random picked.  sssoooooooooooooo    maybe the ticket was really lost. I sure hope they iron it out  to be fair. also the attorney asked lottery agent if he saw theticket    HE replyed  NO.

what a mess.

fast eddie's avatarfast eddie

Finder

luckycat's avatarluckycat
Quote: O
Tx_Mega_Player's avatarTx_Mega_Player

If I'm not mistaken, the odds of winning MM is about 135, 000,000 to one. And my understanding of this situation is that the woman that claimed the prize has a ticket from a previous drawing with the same numbers as the winning numbers. Now what are the odds of  playing a set of numbers in one drawing and then finding a lost ticket with those same numbers on it - and having the found ticket actually winning the jackpot. There is NO WAY IN HELL that the winning ticket was ever lost. I'm very interesting in knowing what the woman's attorney will do next since the "putting up a reward" idea no longer applies. I would think that he would advise this client to drop this crazy lawsuit - and if he doesn't, he is just as much of a "greedy, shiftless, no-account" as the woman making the false claim...

dvdiva's avatardvdiva

i think the real winner should sue both the liar and her attorney. it really pisses me off someone could get away with this. the odds of the real winner having older tickets with the same numbers really sets it in stone as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure some looser will try this stunt now every time there is a big drawing unless this is stopped. And what if it was a quick pick - then you are really screwed

konane's avatarkonane
Luckycat "not so: do you know there is some kind of fed law/ that if you find money/or anthing of real value you must report it to police,and they will hold it for so many days I think 60 days. if no won claims it then its yours. but it must be advertised.  if not  t he person can be prosecuted for not doing so.  remember all the brink trucks loseing money on the road.  it is not ffffinders ./keepers. the law can be enforced,by the criminal investagtor.

Interesting point except that a winning ticket is

(1) a bearer item which is not owned by anyone until the person holding it at the time signs and claims it, just like a bearer bond.  You keep them in your possession and control until cashed or risk losing the potential value until tendering them. 

(2) A lottery ticket is only a piece of paper with no value other than potential which is contingent upon verification and cashing in and making claim to at that time by signing and filling out other paperwork as required. 

If reasoning follows, then perhaps the federal law designed to protect monies lost from Brinks and other carrier trucks, plus monies found from bank robberies does not pertain to lottery tickets.

My opinion of the person claiming that she "lost" the ticket was perfectly stated by  Littleoldlady  "Greedy, shiftless, no-accounts who feel like the world owes them something.."

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