Hearing set in suit over $ 1M lottery ticket

SEARCY — Three people claiming ownership of a $ 1 million Arkansas lottery instant ticket are scheduled to make their cases Tuesday before a White County circuit judge.

The ticket was sold, scratched and discarded at the Super 1 Stop in Beebe on July 15. Store manager Lisa Petriches filed the original suit against Sharon Jones, who claimed to have retrieved the ticket out of a trash receptacle and discovered it was a winner.

Petriches claims she was saving the thrown- away tick- ets, which can be entered for secondary prizes.

Sharon Duncan, who says she’s the original purchaser of the ticket, joined the suit earlier this year, as did Summer One LLC, the corporate owner of the store.

Petriches’ attorney, James “Red” Morgan, argued at a hearing in January that the ticket became hers when Jones put it into the bin. Duncan had testified that she thought an electronic ticket reader told her the ticket wasn’t a winner, so she discarded it.

The Arkansas Lottery Commission responded with a statement after the January hearing that its system was working properly.

Circuit Judge Thomas Hughes commented in the January hearing that it’s possible that neither Petriches nor Jones has a true claim to the ticket.

“There will be lots of witnesses,” Morgan said of Tuesday’s proceedings. Morgan is also representing Jones.

During the January hearing, James Simpson, who is Jones’ attorney, argued that the ticket was the equivalent of abandoned property that was found.

Simpson didn’t return a message left with his office seeking comment Monday.

Morgan said Monday that he didn’t know if the lawsuit could be settled.

Hughes issued a restraining order last year, which prevented Jones from spending the $ 680,000 prize she received from the lottery commission after state and federal taxes were deducted, pending the outcome of the court action.