MEDFORD, Oregon — The police in Medford, Oregon, can collect much of a $1 million prize from the Oregon Lottery that came from a scratch ticket bought with a dead woman's credit card, Oregon's appeals court has ruled.
Oregon allows police to keep money seized in criminal activity. The winnings were awarded to the police when Christina Elizabeth Goodenow, 45, pleaded no contest to using the card that belonged to her boyfriend's mother said.
For starters, Chief Tim George said, the windfall will be used to expand the police property and evidence room.
Under state forfeiture laws, 10 percent of the money goes to the state.
And, when Goodenow was arrested, she had only about $11,000 left from the first of 20 annual payments, police said.
Before she was arrested in 2005, Goodenow used the card illegally to make about $12,000 in purchases, including a Lottery ticket from a Central Point store.
When she won the prize, payable over 20 years, she asked the lottery to keep quiet about it, saying she was a domestic violence victim.
Police said they caught wind of the winnings a few weeks later because Goodenow continued to use the card.
Although she pleaded no contest to theft, forgery and cheating, she filed an appeal in 2007 in an effort to keep the money.
Her lawyer, Michelle R. Burrows, argued that state law bars excessive fines, and Goodenow's crimes, although felonies, were not serious enough to merit taking away the $1 million.
But the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the forfeiture Wednesday, saying it took only money that Goodenow had collected through illegal means.
It "deprives defendant of a net gain from her crimes but does not inflict a net loss," the court said.
Oregon Lottery officials previously have said they have no interest in trying to recoup the money.
If a lump sum payment was ever needed..it was needed for this one!
Had she not continued to use the stolen credit card after she won the cool million, she'd have been sitting pretty.
Greed is what gets them in the end. It distorts any good judgement. Stupid is as stupid does.
The police would have taken the lump sum also. Six of one, half dozen of another.
If they were going to take the money, it should have gone back toward prizes for legit players.
Giving it to the cops is only going to aggravate a very unpleasant trend in them looking for excuses to take/keep property.
That is BS, this is outright theft on the part of the police. The money belongs to the estate of the boyfriend's mother whose funds were used to purchase the ticket. I don't see why the police should be entitled to a dime of the money past the normal fines. Even though it was purchased with stolen funds, I think a 50/50 split with this woman and the estate would be fair.
This is what happens when you have a broke government, they find all sorts of ways to steal the property of the people. I have been seeing it more and more, especially with the use of property seizures from non-payment of as little as 2 years of property taxes. In my town the crooked Sheriff seized a new Mustang from a 65 year old cancer patient as well as cash who was growing medicianl marijuana in his basement and never sold anything to anyone. He was never charged with any crime but the car and some money were able to be taken even though his wife was a nurse and he was a retired autoworker, and the words emblazoned on the side of his car "Taken from a drug dealer".
There are a bunch of people out there worried about guns being taken away, this is the stuff you should really worry about. The police and the state governments are becoming more and more corrupt everyday and the corrupt judges are changing the laws to give them expanded powers. This is the kind of stuff that is going to cause a revolution in this country.
I'm glad the criminal did not get to keep the desserts of her felonious activities.
Screw the Police and the Government ............ it should ALL go to the estate of the deceased!
If she would have had the lump sum,. she could have burned through it. The lottery was not interested in recouping the money. There would have been very little left for the police.
If she would have stolen the card while the woman was still alive, then it would go to her estate.
Me too.
First of all there is no evidence that would have happened. Who is to say the police would still have not tried to keep the money and been awarded it regardless?
Secondly if the woman was still alive there would be no estate you know due to the fact that she was alive
A half decent attorney should argue that even though the money was stolen, past returning the initial amount plus interest, the woman should not be entitled to anything more than that due to the fact that she would not bought the ticket with the money. As I said before a 50/50 settlement even would be equitable.
If I were the credit card company I would sue the police department and the woman who bought the winning ticket for the proceeds. Assuming when the boyfriend's mother died and her estate was not settled and her credit card bill not paid off, which seems unlikely as the purchases were made after her death, then the money used to buy the ticket was in fact not the deceased's but the credit card company's and therefore the prize money actually theirs.
You are welcome whatever credit card company. Feel free to send me my 10% commission when you get the money.
Why do stupid people always win. It's becoming a epidemic.
I'm with the majority here. I dont know why the police get to keep this money. It belongs to the dead womans family and the thieving woman belongs in jail.
Correct me if I'm wrong,but isn't Oregon one of our most liberal states?Nuff said.
If the money was gotten illegally, it was gotten illegally from the Lottery and should be given back to them and added to prizes won by the people who provided that money in the first place - the lottery players.
The stupidest thing ever allowed was when they gave Police Departments the right to confiscate money and property for their own use.
Officer Krupke: "Hey, I really like your car! Mind if I search it?"
bought with a dead woman's credit card
__________________________________________
If the withdrawl from the dead persons credit card did not create an overdraft or denied payment the ticket and winnings belongs to the deceased persons estate.
When were you able to buy tickets with credit cards?
No retailer is allowed to accept anything but cash for lotto purchases. Must have been an uniformed or careless clerk.
I thought that was strange too when I first read it because in my state you have to buy tickets with cash. I just assumed that maybe in that state you could do it. If indeed you can't then that would be a good defense against the loss of the winnings.
Probably used the card at an ATM machine.
This whole paragraph doesn't seem right..
Oregon allows police to keep money seized in criminal activity. The winnings were awarded to the police when Christina Elizabeth Goodenow, 45, pleaded no contest to using the card that belonged to her boyfriend's mother said.
You aren't suppose to be able to buy lottery tix with cc'ds in RI... but there are some clerks that let you. I have no idea how that works out but I suppose that they balance out when they close out their drawers at the end of their shifts maybe?
In some states You can use your debit card as long as you enter your PIN
I have purchased tickets using a credit card, I fill up with gas grab a few items plus a scratcher and pay with a
credit or debit card, no problems. The woman was a thief and should have to repay all the money back to the
lottery and the credit card company should get back the dollar or however much the ticket cost and the police
should get a pat on the back for catching the thief even though it took them quite a while. The police should
not get to keep anything because they are being paid through our taxes. We got to start electing people who
care about this country before it's too late.
RL
DCF
"Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world." Marilyn Monroe
My wife would agree, the problem is that I am beginning to thein the right
pair might not exist. She looks, she buys, she throws them in the closet.
I am going to suggest she click her heels three times at the store before
she buys them.
RL
Be glad she throws them in the closet, mine leaves em all over the house,
I always tripping over em.
LOL.... my husband can relate with you RL- some women love chocolate some women love shoes
...
LOL... haymaker I once bought some shoes & was trying to sneak them in the house I left the in the trunk of my car not thinking my hubby would ever look there.... well he did
he told me I need an intervention 
It takes a while sometimes, dallas, but eventually we catch on to the hiding stuff in the trunk routine, lol.
Why should the proceeds of a legitimate prize won with a legitimate ticket go back to the lottery? There was nothing wrong with the ticket. It was the money used to buy the ticket that was a problem. The lottery was paid for the ticket by the store that sold it, and the store, assuming they accepted the card in good faith, was paid by the credit card company. If she had bought a car and the dealer was paid would you think the dealer was entitled to take the car back and sell it again at a 2nd 50% markup?
Unless the dead woman's estate paid the credit card company for all of the unauthorized debt, there's absolutely no rational reason that her estate has a cclaim on any merchandise that was *stolen* by using the card.
If the credit card company wasn't paid back they should be the legitimate owner of any recovered merchandise that was fraudulently bought with the card. Since they don't seem to have asked for the prize there's only one option left.
If she had bought a car or a house with money gained from a crime the state gets to take it. Other people may think differently, but I think that not letting criminals benefit from their crimes makes sense.
Why should the proceeds of a legitimate prize won with a legitimate ticket go back to the lottery?
Because if the prize is not "legitimate" enough to be awarded to someone, the money should go back to where it came from.
If she had bought a car or a house with money gained from a crime the state gets to take it.
The states are regularly using/abusing these same laws to steal cash, cars, and property from people who AREN'T criminals. They take property and declare it guilty until proven innocent and force you to pay all manner of fees to try to get it back. Just last week, I blogged about a case in D.C.
I think that not letting criminals benefit from their crimes makes sense.
Does that include state employees?
LOL Ridge; I'm not as slick as I use to be in my younger years
, I use to hide them in the boys room & my hubby decided to help them clean there closet(a girl can't get a break)
I need to come up with a better hiding place I was thiinking about the attic but he would really call for an intervention
you could do what my sister does... she actually has rented a storage unit... where she keeps her 'purchases'... i have LONG given up trying to figure out this logic...
Try this logic when hiding teenager's christmas presents.
put them in the back of the pickup truck,
no self respecting teen would look back there, cause there might be work in there. LOL