Rags to riches to rags again
Lottery winnings stolen, says vet
A disabled homeless veteran who won $1 million from a scratchoff lottery ticket only to be swindled out of half his windfall confronted the accused con man in a Brooklyn courtroom Monday.
After hitting it big, John Pickett was allegedly pressured by the head honcho of nonprofit MAG-V to invest his winnings into the agency, which provided homeless vets including Pickett with a place to stay.
Program director Michael Erber offered Pickett a permanent job and a post on MAG-V’s board of directors, as well as housing, if he invested $200,000 — but Pickett testified Monday he got nada in return.
“Not only did he take away my dream, he took away my money and left me with nothing,” Pickett testified, weeping on the stand in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
The $200,000 that Pickett says he gave to Erber was nearly half of the $428,000 he took home from his $1 million lottery win in summer 2015.
After helping family and friends out, giving money to random people in the street and throwing cash into the air, Pickett, 54, says he’s back to being broke.
“I don’t have nothing that I won or purchased with that lottery money,” he said. “Not one dime.”
Erber, 62, was arrested in February 2019 on a grand larceny charge over Pickett’s accusations — and hit with five more counts of grand larceny as well as a count of scheming to defraud for allegedly stealing rent money that should have paid for housing for other homeless veterans.
“Stealing money intended to support our veterans is truly unconscionable,” said Attorney General Letitia James at the time of Erber’s arrest.
“This type of behavior will never be tolerated.”
Pickett was arrested for murder after stabbing his lover to death in December 1997 during an argument in their Crown Heights apartment.
He was the first gay man to be allowed to use the “battered wife” defense, with his lawyers claiming he killed his abusive partner in selfdefense.
He wound up pleading guilty to manslaughter and served nine years in prison, getting out in 2008. Pickett was staying in MAG-V-run housing in the Bronx in 2015 when he won the lottery, he testified.
Though Pickett knew Erber, the two were not close. But after Pickett won the lottery, Erber began reaching out.
“He contacted me every day, in the morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes at night. It was aggravating and also very stressful,” Pickett testified during Erber’s criminal trial Monday. But he said that about a month after winning he finally decided to invest.
Pickett, who is HIV-positive, said what really caused him to trust Erber was when Erber visited him in the hospital when he had pneumonia.
“I was shocked that he was concerned about my health and comfort,” Pickett testified.
Bank records show Pickett took out $200,000 from his account in July 2015.
The attorney general began investigating the case after DNAinfo reported Pickett’s claims in 2017.
“I used to be one of the most generous persons you ever met in your life and now you can’t even get a penny out of me,” Pickett testified.
“It made me bitter, very bitter. I was fully taken advantage of. I know it and everyone knows it.”
Erber was named in a 2016 lawsuit that alleged MAG-V harassed and illegally evicted homeless vets from housing without any due process or court decisions.
“MAG-V tenants have apparently all been made aware that they can be kicked out without process for any rule violation,” the lawsuit reads.
MAG-V was also sued in 2015 by a real estate firm, Farm Development LLC, which owned one of MAGV’s buildings, claiming that the company owed $55,000 in unpaid rent.
“I think he should be found 100% guilty,” Pickett said of Erber outside the courtroom Monday.
But Pickett also said he believes Erber meant to help him out with the promised job, housing and position on the board of directors.
“To this day I believe what he said,” Pickett said. “I believe he was honestly trying to do it but something prevented him.”