Powerball winner gets anonymity

CONCORD, N.H. — A judge ruled Monday that a New Hampshire woman who won a Jan. 6 Powerball jackpot worth nearly $560 million can keep her identity private, but not her hometown.

The woman, identified as “Jane Doe” in a lawsuit against the New Hampshire Lottery Commission, “was jumping up and down,” said her lawyer, William Shaheen. “She will be able to live her life normally.”

Judge Charles Temple wrote that he had “no doubts whatsoever that should Ms. Doe’s identity be revealed, she will be subject to an alarming amount of harassment, solicitation, and other unwanted communications.”

He said she met her burden of showing that her privacy interest outweighs the public’s interest in disclosing her name in the nation’s eighth- largest jackpot.

The woman, who is from Merrimack, signed her ticket after the drawing but later learned that she could have shielded her identity by writing the name of a trust.

Last week, the commission handed over $264 million — the amount left after taxes were deducted — to the woman’s lawyers. They said she would give $150,000 to Girls Inc. and $33,000 apiece to three chapters of End 68 Hours of Hunger in the state.

It is the first of what her lawyers said would be donations over the years of between $25 million to $50 million during her lifetime.