The chairman of a Connecticut police commission has resigned after being charged in Florida with trying to cash in a winning $520,000 lottery ticket that was reported stolen by his niece.
Michael Royston, 49, was freed on bond after his arrest last Thursday at Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee, and on Friday night, he sent a terse resignation email to Windsor Locks Town Clerk William Hamel, saying only: "Effective immediately I am resigning my position as police commissioner."
On Sunday night, he issued a statement denying his guilt to Connecticut news organizations including The Courant.
"I adamantly deny any wrong doing in which I have been accused. I do not want this to [a]ffect the Commission or The Windsor Locks Police Department while I exonerate my name, therefore I have resigned from the Windsor Locks Police Commission. It has been an honor and a privilege serving the citizens of Windsor Locks," he said.
Royston turned himself in and was charged with filing a false claim for payment, trying to pass a lottery ticket with the intent to defraud, and grand theft in excess of $100,000, according to a story published Friday by the Tallahassee Democrat.
The story quoted court records as indicating that Royston tried to claim the prize, saying the ticket had been a gift, but couldn't provide the name of the person who gave it to him. The story said his niece told police that early last month she'd shown the ticket to Royston in Connecticut, and that a few days afterward she'd reported it stolen to the Northampton, Massachusetts, police.
The story said that Florida officials were made aware the ticket had reported stolen when Royston tried to cash it in that state, and that he had told police he'd found the ticket under the seat of his car.
The Courant asked Royston in an email to comment on that newspaper account, and he did not. He did send back an email late Sunday night answering one question about when he will answer the charges in court. "No court date has been set as of yet," he said in the email.
The position of police commission chairman in Windsor Locks is unpaid, and not part of the sworn police force. Members of the commission have fiduciary and policy responsibilities in overseeing the department. Royston headed the commission starting in January, when the panel's erstwhile chairman moved out of the state.
Royston had a higher-than-usual public profile during his tenure as chairman. A month after assuming the role, the commission approved a settlement to pay $460,000 to end a labor dispute with Robert Koistinen, the sergeant acquitted of hindering the drunken driving investigation of his son. Koistinen's son, former Windsor Locks policeman Michael Koistinen struck Henry Dang with his car, killing him, when the teenager was riding his bicycle home in October 2010.
The elder Koistinen agreed to retire as part of the settlement, rather than be reinstated to his job in accordance with a State Board of Mediation and Arbitration ruling. Royston said in recommending the resolution: "There has been this dark cloud hanging over the police department and the town for too long now and it is time to try and put this behind us." Town voters approved the settlement in March.
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That is a stinking shame. Greed will surely make you lose your good sense of judgement.
He lost his career and his reputation for a ticket that didn't belong to him what a stupid move.
He tried to steal his own nieces lottery ticket. Says a lot about his character.
Why resign, if you are innocent...
This guy gives the term greedy pig a new meaning.
Exactly!
The real crooks.
lol...I know he fought a good fight with his conscious. Poor thing!!
This is exactly why I detest and don't trust cops.
If an American cant trust the TOP COP,
how can Americans trust the lower cops.
In defense of this clown, at least he didn't put a chokehold on his niece for that ticket.
What to learn from this:
Don't show your ticket to anyone until you go to the lottery company to claim the money.
Take photocopies of the ticket(film the ticket with your mobile phone camera too) just in case, and sign the ticket.
This is why you keep a win as big as this to yourself until you have cashed in the ticket and moved the heck out of town. Money can change the people around you pretty quickly. I know it may seem exciting to let others know of your win but you just never know how far someone will go including your family to take it away from you. I hope she got the ticket back.
If that's really her ticket then this guy has got to be one dumb cop. The truth will come out
"Someone gave it to me but I can't remember who."
"I found it under my car seat."
Dumb indeed.
I think for all the people who held a firm belief that there were friends who could be trusted when it came to large sums of money, I hope they are paying attention to this, because if a family member who just happened to be a police commissioner could do this, then it goes to show really no one should be trusted.
Don't rely on an honor code, don't rely on handshakes, don't tell anyone your financial business unless absolutely necessary, and keep eyes on everyone. A police commissioner, seriously. The whole thing is just wrong on so many levels. A person who is simply unprincipled may try to rip off a total stranger, but he did this to his niece. His NIECE. Again, wrong on so many many levels. This goes beyond unprincipled. This is amoral and conscienceless. Thank goodness she had the foresight to report it stolen, otherwise he may have gotten away with it.
Another instance where the real winner should have signed the ticket ASAP...
i agree ,she should have kept the win to her self .I hope shes not bothered by relatives or others harassing her for money either .Nothing wrong with helping people as long as they dont try to take advantage of you .Money can make some people do crazy things .
Yeah right...I have a family member going on a trip in a couple weeks and thought for a sec how about giving her some money to get me some tickets...but hard to trust...
Next family reunion should be loads of fun. Not!
What a dirtbag.
What makes you think you can trust your Bank?
This was posted on another forum I am on, discussing someone winning big, and not sharing with family:
"While it was nowhere like the BrotherInLaw's situation, a few years ago, we won a tidy sum. We did some of the usual things with it, investments, house, that sort of thing. But we helped family. A lot. Siblings. Parents. We took them on trips, hosted holidays, and lent sums for medical issues, for college classes. Bought them much-needed cars and helped pay for relocations.
Not one single member of our family actually made productive use of the opportunities. They accepted the loans, and, in some cases, made cursory steps toward the medical treatments or education. Then nothing. The cars were not taken care of, or, in one case, crashed after 2 months. College classes were unfinished, degree programs abandoned. The things that were supposed to be building blocks to better situations pretty much just patched things up for a few years, and now all of the people we helped are in the same or worse situations than before. They complain that we "never get together any more" for holidays or trips to Orlando-ville parks, all things that happened on our dime.
And this isn't counting the slew of "It must be nice" comments we STILL hear from other family members, even though it is clear our financial situation is much reduced, mostly BECAUSE we helped our family out. "
It is sad that sharing the money did not work out well.
Well, shadowlady, as long as these jackpot winners don't regret their monetary "gifts" to their relatives, and kept enough to have a current net worth of $4M or so, I think they will be fine until the end of their days! Gifting should occur, if able, but the gifter shouldn't get too 'hung-up' on their gift bringing only positive things to their receiver! And, of course, those who receive monetary gifts should strongly resist assuming that there will be more to come at a later date(s)!
Sorry, I semi-disagree. I think the gifter has every right to be disappointed in what was essentially a waste of money. I think people really need to get out of the mindset of lottery winnings being some kind of play money to just throw away. Money is money. And it's obvious that the gifter understood that.
I know that most people think that if a gift is given, there should be no strings attached. But in this case, he didn't just hand them wads of cash and tell them to go hog wild with it. He gave the money for a specific purpose. To go to school or get medical treatment or make sure they had reliable transportation. If they didn't honor the gift in the spirit in which it was intended and earmarked for, then yeah, being regretful seems perfectly reasonable to me. So many people in this world are in serious need of help and these people took an opportunity and threw it away.
But he had not lost his pension since he resigned.
Another good advice to protect a big lottery win ticket after signing it, take picture/video it with yourself in view, is put it in a bank safety deposit box......till that person ready to collect the winning ticket.
US should offer player registration systems. It would help players protect their tickets against loss or theft. The state lotteries could also generate additional revenue from such systems.
It's a win win situation!
"I adamantly deny any wrong doing in which I have been accused" Cops always lie.
People who pretend to be something their not ,will do almost anything if they think no one is watching. Doing the right thing when no one is watching is the true test of a person character.
Maybe they should go back check his arrest records too. 
So true. With an uncle like that who needs enemies.