'I Lied' -- Woman Drops Lottery Lawsuit

Jan 8, 2004, 10:27 am (22 comments)

Mega Millions

Updated: Jan. 8, 2003 12:38 PM

A woman said through tears Thursday that she lied about losing the winning ticket for a $162 million lottery prize awarded to another woman.

Elecia Battle, 40, is dropping her lawsuit to block payment of the 11-state Mega Millions jackpot to the certified winner, her lawyer Sheldon Starke said.

"I wanted to win," Battle said. "The numbers were so overwhelming. I did buy a ticket and I lost. I wanted to win so bad for my kids and my family. I apologize."

Starke says that it was Battle's decision to drop the case.

Battle claimed she dropped the winning ticket. Thirty people searched outside the store where the ticket was sold. However, Jemison showed the lottery officials the ticket in perfect condition.

After Battle's claim, details about Battle's criminal history surfaced. Court and police records, however, show convictions for misuse of a credit card and criminal trespassing.

Police says Battle used a customer's credit card number to make purchases while working at a Richmond Heights pharmacy in 1999. She paid a $450 fine for misuse of a credit card, and a ten-day jail sentence was suspended.

Battle said she wanted to use the money to help her family and recently laid-off Cleveland police officers. She apologized to Jemison, her lawyer and her husband.

"I'm not a bad person, I'm really not," Battle said. "Everyone has a past."

Authorities are investigating whether Battle lied in the police report - a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in jail.

Jemison, of suburban South Euclid, qualified for a lump-sum payment of $67.2 million, after taxes.

AP

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

angelman's avatarangelman

Gee, that is a real shocker, to find out that she lied.....NOT !!!! She deserves whatever she gets.

konane's avatarkonane

C&#

BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

Isn't it hysterical that she is saying that she lied because she wanted to help recently laid-off Cleveland police officers?  It's more along the lines of buttering them up so they don't press charges for filing a false police report.

Shame, shame, everyone knows your alias name! 

 

Tang's avatarTang

Can we say.......JAIL TIME. People who play the lottery, wish for a jackpot to come their way but that is the craziest thing I have every heard. Humiliation, devastation, she asked for it!! Congrats goes to the real winner and her family.

DoubleDown

 

"I Lied"  ...she said.

 

Whats next ? Pete Rose saying he lied about betting on baseball ? 

 

As Homer Simpson would say... DOH !

mken35's avatarmken35

another lesson for all the bag of tricks people come up with, take notes so you become a victim.of a lost lottery ticket. just amazing.

karamu

Hey! When the last word come out her mouth! She knew she lied.

    Had all those people out in the parking lot with flash light looking for a ticket that was not there.

      The bad part about it was I felt sorry for her. With here back behind the fence playing self.

  Oh! By the way everybody look for 486

Thomas Covenant's avatarThomas Covenant

Hmmmmm, Next time there is a big jackpot, I think I'll tell everybody I threw it in the trash by mistake and took it to the local dump. I wonder how many people would show up to look through all that garbage?

RJOh's avatarRJOh

I bet a lot of people check Jack Whittaker's SUV every time he leaves it in a public place hoping to find a brief case, not a lottery ticket.

RJOh

tg636

So, she knew the winning ticket was out there, safely in the possession of the person who bought it, who would dventually cash it in at lottery headquarters.  How could she have hoped a hair brained lie aided by a hack lawyer (who should soon be disbarred) was going to bring a few million to her fat little hands?  At this point she should say "At least I didn't kill anybody."

The only good thing to come out of this would be if the police and lottery refused to take any more reports of "lost" tickets until the expiration date has passed. And then the point would be moot because the ticket would be worthless.  

fja's avatarfja

She told a lie so big, she couldn't take it back until she was up against the wall, she does deserve what she gets, she did make the police look kinda silly when they said it sounded like a credible story....however with seven kids (hopefully shes not lying about that) I don't think jail time is going to help anybody....

hypersoniq's avatarhypersoniq

I want to win too, but not THAT bad...

Todd's avatarTodd
Quote: O
MichiganHopeful's avatarMichiganHopeful

The Things people do for money.....wow!

Subscribe to this news story
Guest