Posted on 01/06/2004 4:16:28 PM PST by saquin
Ohio woman has fraud, assault convictions, uses alias
JANUARY 6--The Ohio woman who told police that she purchased--and then lost--the winning $162 million Mega Millions lottery ticket--has several arrests on her rap sheet, including convictions for assault and credit card fraud, The Smoking Gun has learned. In addition, Elecia Battle is using an alias and has falsely claimed to be married to the man with whom she now lives.
Battle, whose real name is Elecia Dickson, apparently has borrowed the surname of boyfriend James Battle. The 40-year-old pharmacy worker remains legally married to husband Keith Dickson, though the couple is in the middle of a divorce action pending in Cuyahoga County's Court of Common Pleas.
Using the Battle alias, Dickson this afternoon filed a lawsuit seeking to block the awarding of the Mega Millions jackpot to Rebecca Jemison, the woman who came forward today to claim the lottery jackpot (and who was declared the winner by Ohio state officials).
According to court records and TSG sources, Dickson's rap sheet dates back at least a decade and includes busts for aggravated menacing, assault, and credit card fraud. The latter conviction, according to a source familiar with the case, stemmed from a 1999 swindle Dickson orchestrated at a suburban Cleveland chain store. The below mug shot was taken following Dickson's September 1999 arrest in Cleveland Heights for misdemeanor assault.
The woman's estranged husband--who's been married to Dickson for 13 years--told TSG, "My wife can stretch things out of proportion." He added, "Looks like she filed a bogus police report."
When she went to cops with her tale of the lost lottery ticket, officers asked Dickson how she picked the six winning numbers. A couple of the numbers came from one son's birth date, while another number was her son's age flipped. As for why she picked the winning number 49, Dickson told cops that her "husband turns 49 this year." That came as a surprise to Keith Dickson, himself a dedicated gambler and lottery player. "I'm 44," he said. "I turn 45 in February."
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Alabama | 230.00 |
7 |
32.86 |
215 |
1.07 |
339.50 |
19 |
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CLEVELAND - A hospital worker came forward Tuesday and collected a $162 million lottery jackpot, and another woman who told authorities she bought the winning ticket but lost it has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt any payout to the winner.
Rebecca Jemison, 34, of suburban South Euclid, turned in the ticket for the 11-state Mega Millions jackpot at Ohio Lottery headquarters. The lottery validated it Tuesday as the sole winning ticket for the drawing.
The woman with the competing claim, Elecia Battle, filed a lawsuit later Tuesday asking a Cuyahoga County judge to block the lottery from paying Jemison.
"My ticket was lost. I do recall all the numbers. They are all somehow family related. No one can tell me what I did and did not play. I did it honestly and I have no doubt," Battle told The Associated Press at the office of her attorney, Sheldon Starke.
Earlier, Jemison said the competing claim by Battle, 40, of Cleveland, prompted her to quit stalling and collect the prize from the Dec. 30 drawing.
Police, who originally had said Battle's story was credible, said they were investigating whether she had lied in a police report, a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days to six months in jail.
Dennis G. Kennedy, director of the Ohio Lottery, said the lottery was confident Jemison had purchased the ticket, not found it.
Jemison provided another lottery ticket purchased at the same time and location and had a lottery ticket that showed she had played the same numbers in the prior drawing, Kennedy said.
not this one....if it stinks like a duck...
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