Stolen lottery ticket trial underway in Chicago

Dec 13, 2005, 8:30 am (41 comments)

Mega Millions

The trial began Monday for a woman accused of stealing a winning lottery ticket from her co-workers. The Mega Millions prize was worth $178,000. The winning ticket is still missing.

There was no violence involved in this case, and the person on trial was actually given at one point the item she is accused of stealing. Nonetheless, this two-year-old lottery controversy has found its way to the Cook County Criminal Courts Building.

The 46-year-old wife and mother of two adult daughters sat at the defense table sometimes shaking her head as prosecution witnesses testified. Dora Leal, a former clerk at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, is accused of stealing a winning lottery ticket purchased by 16 traders in late 2003.

Leal's boss, trader Richard Tobin, had sent Leal to a lobby convenience store to find out if any of the 38 tickets he and the other traders bought as a group had won.

The store owner testified that after she told Leal that one of the tickets had won $175,000, Leal was hugging and high-fiving other customers but later told Tobin that the tickets he gave her had won only $17.

Leal's attorney told the jury his client had not stolen anything and certainly never cashed the lottery ticket. He also insisted Leal gave Tobin the paper work documenting the lottery win but simply could not find the ticket, which two years later still has not surfaced.

Options trader Richard Tobin also testified Monday that the Illinois lottery is in the process of paying him and the other 15 traders who bought the missing ticket, because the ticket apparently was registered as a winner by the store owner after Leal turned in it.

Finally, we are told Leal will testify on her own behalf some time Tuesday. Then the judge says he hopes the jury will deliberate on this case on Wednesday to decide guilt or innocence in the lottery controversy.

WLS-TV

Comments

BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

I remember this case when it first happened and hope that this woman does jail time.  What she did was very low!

qutgnt

I used to work on the trading floor at the cboe and knew Rich Tobin a little bit. An extremely nice man. I would answer his phones once in a while and he would sometimes buy us lunch. He is a big shot on the floor there,and he took care of his clerks. This Dora woman you could just tell was a slimy woman who I dont doubt took this ticket for herself as no one would know. These traders got lucky that she was so dumb to check it at the store in the cboe where other traders in line saw when she scanned the ticket in the self checking terminal and it came back saying 175k winner. I think the group had 190 bucks worth of tickets and had them photocopied and the ticket in question she claims she never checked. These traders dont need the money but the principle of having a long time clerk betray you like that is pretty bad. She would have gotten a nice tip for sure. But now her life is ruined.

Chewie

Not the first person, nor the last, who put up a false front.  I am sure she told her children to be upstanding.  I prefer people who don't switch on a dime - or for a dime.

fxsterling

i miss alcots and that hot dog stand  next to cals    gutgut knows  the lady should have known better

Iesha Kelly

I remember this case when it first happened and hope that this woman does jail time.  What she did was very low!

I hope she does jail time, too.  a long sentence.  that's just wrong.

CASH Only

I remember this case when it first happened and hope that this woman does jail time.  What she did was very low!

I hope she does jail time, too.  a long sentence.  that's just wrong.

She'll have time to WRITE a long sentence if she's convicted. If the warden gives her pens and enough paper LOL

Lurk More N00b's avatarLurk More N00b

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Timothy, 6:10

If she were a cartoon, you would have seen the little cash registers cha-chinging in her eyes when she read that ticket. That's when the little evil-self sitting on her shoulder told her to "Go ahead! They'll never find out!" And the little good-self on the other shoulder was too busy to intervene, thinking of a new BMW, a second story on the house, a bigger swimming pool...

demonter

 This is a crazy case. She claims to have given her boss the paperwork, but lost the ticket? Now they are paying off the winners...based on the paper work, and not the actual ticket? I was recently a juror on a criminal case and I can tell you that the defense and prosecution have two totally opposing stories; unless it looks as if the clerk really stole the winning ticket a slam-dunk conviction is not guaranteed. Remember-You are assumed INNOCENT until proven guilty. Strange case...

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Except in this forum where she is Guilty until proven Guilty.

Unless she presented the Ticket for Payment it's going to be difficult to prove that she stole it.

 

qutgnt

She was going to turn it in herself or have a friend do it, but when the heat was on and it was obvious she wasnt going to be able to cash it, it magically disappeared.  All the tickets out of the 38 or so they had are accounted for except the winner. They have a photocopy of the ticket. cause that is what they do on floor. Everyone pools money together and then everyone gets copies of the tickets. 

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

Deception-guilty. Committing an act of fraud- guilty. Need there be more to this case? Hmmm...This is a case that most prosecutors long for. Open and shut.

demonter

She claims she lost the winning ticket.

She did not cash in the winning ticket.

Who can prove she stole the ticket?

There is no solid proof of a misdeed; a jury must under the rules, assume a defendant is innocent unless the state can prove otherwise. I say she walks.

BaristaExpress's avatarBaristaExpress

Remember-You are assumed INNOCENT until proven guilty.

Come-on get real here. Everyone knows that the Justice system says you are "Innocent" until proven guilty! But we all know that's a LIE! Most people in the United States agree, if for some reason you are accused of wrong doing in our Justice system you are guilty until proven "Innocent". Justice in this country isn't blind (like they say it is), it's "Judgmental" and that alone is what makes you guilty until proven innocent! And that's just sickening beyond belief.

TheGameGrl's avatarTheGameGrl

Riddle me this Demonter- Why would the courts allow this case to be set for trial IF there was NO validity to the allegations or some evidence to present? A person can actually be tried for murder without the weapon or the body. So why cant this women be tried even if the ticket isnt in her possession or ever found?

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