DANNY JOHNSTON/AP
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas woman who threw away a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million filed paperwork Monday arguing that another woman who plucked the ticket out of the trash should turn the prize money over to the court.
The request from Sharon Duncan's attorneys comes after a judge ruled this month that the prize money belongs to her, not Sharon Jones, who picked the ticket from the trash and claimed the jackpot.
The judge already issued a restraining order in the case — but only after Jones and her husband spent some of the money on a new pickup truck and gave tens of thousands of dollars to their children.
Now, Duncan's attorneys say any vehicles or property bought with the money from the winning ticket should be seized and impounded.
Jones' lawyers, who plan to appeal the judge's decision, argued Monday that Duncan's attorneys filed their latest request too soon, so it shouldn't count.
But one of Jones' lawyers, Winston Collier, said the request to have the money turned over to the court didn't come as a big surprise.
"My clients were given $680,000 (after taxes) and... the trial judge has ruled that it's not theirs," Collier said Monday. "So obviously they don't get to keep it."
One of Duncan's attorneys didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Jones claimed the prize money last summer, turning in a scratch-off "Diamond Dazzler" ticket that Duncan said she purchased at a convenience store in Beebe, about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock.
Duncan told a judge she discarded the ticket after an electronic scanner told her it was "not a winner." The state's Lottery Commission, meanwhile, stands by its machines and says its equipment functions properly.
The Joneses told The Associated Press earlier this month that they had about $490,000 remaining from the jackpot. They said that aside from the buying the pickup truck, they gave tens of thousands of dollars to their children and thousands more to a relative who has a child with Down syndrome.
"Do I think my client is going to be thrilled to know that someone's trying to seize her truck? Of course not," Collier said. "But she wasn't thrilled to find out that the judge didn't think it was her million dollars either."
Social Plugin