January 08, 2004
OK, I admit it, I lied about the lottery ticket
Now it can be told, Elecia Battle has fooled all of us! Well, not really, but she did have us going for a little while, didn’t she? The flashlights, the store searching, the tears, we felt her grief over the loss of this fortune. But now we see that it was all a scam, that’s right, our trust has once again been violated. (Can you sense an sprinkle of lightheartedness and sarcasm mixed into here?)
CLEVELAND - A woman admitted through tears Thursday that she lied about losing the winning ticket for a $162 million lottery prize, saying: “I wanted to win so badly for my kids and my family.”
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 it. I wanted to win so bad for my kids and my family. I apologize.”
The Cleveland woman had filed a police report saying she lost the ticket, possibly when she dropped her purse outside a convenience store. The lottery dismissed the claim and declared Rebecca Jemison, 34, the winner on Tuesday.
Police Lt. Kevin Nietert said Thursday he expected Battle to be charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in jail.
Battle apologized to her husband, her lawyer and Jemison, saying she wanted to use the money to help her family and recently laid-off Cleveland police officers.
Source: Yahoo © 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved
Posted by akvalley at January 8, 2004 02:19 PM | TrackBack