Lottery Update!

It looks like my initial suspicions were correct. Ms. Battles, the woman who claimed she "lost" her lottery ticket, is apparently a con artist. Her real name is Elicia Dickinson. She has been involved in fraud, "aggravated menacing", assault, and criminal trespass.

In addition, it turns out her story as to her source of the winning numbers is bogus, too. She claims that two numbers (12 & 18) come from her child's birthday (December 18). So far, so good. But then the number 32 comes from reversing another child's age. Umm, okay -- odd, but vaguely plausible.

Her final number, 49, however, supposedly came from how old her estranged husband will be next year.

Unfortunately for Ms. Battles/Dickinson's story, he turns 45, not 49.

That hasn't stopped her lawsuit, however. I am guessing she hopes to tie up the lottery funds long enough to wrangle $10K or so out of the winner, Rebecca Jemison. I hope Rebecca stands strong and holds her ground. Ms. Battles/Dickinson should not be rewarded for abusing the system and outright fraud. Her ex-husband has stated that the woman has a propensity for "stretching things out of proportion".

Oh yeah -- in the long-term consequences department, Ms. Battles/Dickinson is the plaintiff in two pending negligence lawsuits. One involves allegations her daughter ingested a tainted milk shake at McDonald's. The other involves an injury claim against the local gas company. How will the lottery case impact those cases? Simple. While evidence as to character is generally not admissible (the fact someone is unsavory should not bear on their ability to recover for their injuries), evidence of a pertinent character trait (such as, oh, I don't know, honesty?) is admissible to impeach the credibility of a witness. Ms. Dickinson/Battle will have to testify in these cases to describe how she or her child were injured. When she does, opposing counsel will be able to bring up this case (showing she filed a false police report) and the earlier case involving credit card fraud.

Oops. There is a moral in here, but if I have to point it out . . .

Steve
- posted by MrSpkr @ 10:35