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| Updated: 1/31/2012 5:43 pm |
Published: 1/31/2012 5:15 pm |
BEEBE, AR - The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery weighs in on a dispute over a $1 million lottery ticket. What it says could change the outcome of the case and it’s a detail one side of the dispute doesn't want to talk about it.
Two sides feuding over a $1 million scratch off-ticket.
Sharon Jones found it, cashed it and got sued by Lisa Petriches, the store manager at the Super 1 Stop in Beebe.
Petriches claims Jones snatched it out of a store bin marked "do not take". Employee, clerk Rondi Smith testified to that in White County court last week.
Winston Collier represents Sharon Jones and maintains his client found the winning ticket in an unmarked bin and is the rightful recipient of the winnings.
However, when both sides informed circuit judge Thomas Hughes they would not finish presenting their case in a single day, the case was continued to a later date.
"We remain in that holding pattern at this point," Collier says.
No resolution yet but now the lottery is speaking out.
Arkansas Scholarship Lottery chief legal counsel Bishop Woosley released a statement regarding the supposed ticket bin.
“Lottery director of security Lance Huey and his deputy director Remmele Mazyck did not see any signs on or above the bin on the day following the claim for the prize being made,” Woosley says.
Based on the information we received from the Arkansas Lottery we decided to take it to the source who could perhaps answer the questions, Lisa Petriches.
Her claim to the $1 million prize might hinge on when the "do not take" sign showed up on the bin. So when we asked her about it Tuesday she quickly got on the phone and walked into her office.
Goins says: “The lottery says there was not a sign here. Are you denying what the lottery said? Are you saying the lottery is wrong?" Petriches says: "No comment."
The store even promotes the sale of a $1 million dollar ticket that so far no one can claim.
The store manager and her attorneys claim they know who rightfully bought the ticket.
That woman, Sharon Duncan, even testified last week she purchased the ticket and saw a “do not take” sign bin on the day she claims she bought it.
But the lottery maintains after looking at surveillance it can not say for sure who bought it, only who claimed it, Sharon Jones.
FOX16 spoke with Red Morgan, the attorney representing Petriches by phone on Tuesday. He said he has not made a decision on how to proceed but anticipates a decision soon.
