Lotto winner wants sum to hire security
Anonymous ‘Jane Doe’ will give state ID, but it must remain secret
The mystery woman sitting on a Powerball ticket worth $560 million is petitioning a New Hampshire court to let her claim the jackpot before a judgment is reached on whether her name must be made public — in part, her lawyers argue, so she can start lining up private security.
A hearing on her fight to collect her winnings anonymously was held yesterday in Hillsborough Superior Court in Nashua, N.H.
Lawyers for “Jane Doe” filed a motion asking the court to let her claim the third-largest Powerball jackpot in history through a trust, “pending a final resolution of this matter.”
She is agreeing, as part of the claim process, to have a trustee provide her photo identification and Social Security number to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission on the condition that all her personal information be kept confidential.
A lump-sum cash payout is worth $352 million, the lawyers note in their court filing.
The woman struck gold on Jan. 6 with the Easy Pick combination of 12-29-30-3361 and Powerball number 26.
The ticket was purchased at Reeds Ferry Market in Merrimack, N.H.
“Allowing Ms. Doe to collect payment of the Powerball prize will provide Ms. Doe with the time and resources to adequately prepare for the possibility that the Court will hold that the Commission must disclose her identity in response to a Right-to-Know request,” the attorneys tell the court. “With her prize winnings, Ms. Doe will be able to obtain the necessary security to ensure her and her family’s safety and take other protective actions in order to mitigate acts of harassment and annoyance.”
The woman signed the back of the Powerball ticket with her name, home address and phone number after turning to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission’s website for advice on how to claim her prize — only belatedly realizing she could have set up a trust to protect her identity.
The commission has seen a copy of the ticket and confirmed “it is likely the winning ticket,” its lawyers acknowledge in their motion to dismiss Jane Doe’s argument for remaining anonymous.
The ticket will have to be submitted as signed with the winner’s signature and personal information, the commission states.
“Even if the winner elects to assign the ticket to another legal entity, such as a trust, the ticket itself will need to be submitted in its original form,” the commission told the court. “Whiting out, reconstruction, tampering or other alteration of the ticket violates Powerball Administrative Rules and could lead to a disqualification of the ticket.”
The winning ticket, when presented to the commission, will be considered a public document, the commission’s lawyers note. Under New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know law, most public documents must be released upon appropriate request, and the commission would be legally obligated to release the winning ticket with, at a minimum, the winner’s name and hometown, it states.