Legal Lottery? Legal Lottery.

So now we have the two great American gambles, the lottery and the legal system, duking it out. We have in one corner the lottery winner, Ms. Rebecca Jemison, who claims to have played these numbers occasionally over the past several years and who turned in the $162M winning ticket.

In the other corner, we have another woman, Elecia Battle, who announced she bought the ticket, then "lost" it outside the convenience store where she bought it (conveniently, Ms. Battle announced this AFTER the Lottery Commission released the location that issued the winning ticket). She now intends to roll the dice in the great American lottery that is the legal system.

Ms. Battle's lawyer, one Sheldon Starke, stated "this is a question of lost property, not abandoned property. If there is one type of property that is not presumed to be abandoned, it's money ... Anyone who finds it is not the owner."

While that is true, to an extent, Ms. Battle MUST be able to prove that she is the owner. As this is a lottery ticket, her handwriting is not going to be much help -- tickets are machine printed. The store's video cameras are not going to be much help -- the store owner said they are broken. Fingerprints MIGHT be of assistance, unless, of course, the claimant says she was wearing gloves at the time. And you can bet that she will.

Sigh. Might Ms. Battle have bought the ticket? Yup. Can she prove it? Unless she knows something I don't know -- nope. Is she entitled to the winnings if she can't prove she bought the ticket? Nope -- but her lawyer is going to try like heck to portray her as a victim (and will likely engage in some serious character assassination against Ms. Jemison). If he gets a friendly judge, he may even get to do a little mudwrestling in front of a jury.

Who is right? I don't know. But I'll be willing to bet this case, if it goes forward, will have more to do with character assassination, dirty tricks, lies, and mud-slinging than anything else.

That's unfortunate, as it will provide yet another negative portrayal of the legal profession.

Steve

UPDATE! Apparently, Ms. Battle has filed suit. Meanwhile, Ms. Jemison has presented the Ohio Lottery officials with another ticket she bought at the same time as the winning ticket, plus evidence that she had used these same numbers on prior occasions. The District Attorney is considering filing charges against Ms. Battle for filing a false police report.

And well they should, IMHO, if she cannot prove ownership. I suspect she has been lying all along, though, of course, I cannot prove it.
- posted by MrSpkr @ 13:17