They won’t get charged with a new crime just for drinking alcohol. But they may go back to prison for drinking alcohol.
Just so we’re clear on that point.
The state happily took his dollar for the lotto ticket. If they don’t pay him, they should comb their records carefully and return the ticket payments to all unsuitable ticket buyers, not just the one who had the temerity to win.
Point taken. I hadn’t realized that that was what hajario meant.
In this case, Elliott may well go to prison for violating the terms of his probation. That is certainly one issue for debate; whether gambling is a reasonable restriction to impose.
There is another issue, which is whether the winnings could be withheld because of this. To twist the drinking/DUI comparison, it would be equivalent to not only jailing the offender, but also confiscating his or her very expensive wine collection.
Eventually the probation or jail term will be over. There has been no indication that the lottery winnings will be “held” until this time, and then distributed.
Moderator’s Note: Thread title changed at OP’s request.
Let him keep the money. He can use it to bargain for cigarettes in jail.
There’s a really simple solution to this. Let him keep the money, and amend his probation agreement to allow the state lottery. The state’ll have it’s million back in no time.
That’s my view on it, as well.
Of course, since the terms of his probation specifically disallow gambling, I don’t think he’s got a leg to stand on- he’s broken probation, he gets to go back to jail. However, at this point, the money is his (or should be, anyway). Seizing it, for any reason, reeks of undue punishment and blatant greed.
If he hadn’t won, chances are that his photo, name, etc. wouldn’t have been plastered on the lottery website confirming that he was gambling. A probation officer might be lenient finding an old worthless lottery ticket on the guy. Win, and it’s now public, you can’t simply ignore the violation unless you’re willing to tell everyone with these types of probation conditions that they don’t matter.
Unless there are rules (either lottery or probation rules) that specifically spell out that he can’t keep his winnings, I say he’s got to keep the money, and take the hit for violating probation.
In my view, he’s broken his probation conditions, so should go back to jail, but has not broken the law, so should not forfeit his winnings.
Suppose his probation condition had been not to go to a certain area (e.g., because that is where a victim of his crime still lives). But he went there, and bought a car from a dealer there for $10,000 dollars. It’s a breach of parole, but not a crime: should he forfeit the car because he bought it as a result of breaching parole? I think not.
Just to be clear - I agree with your view of the proper course of action here, myself. He did violate his probation and should have it revoked because of that.
In Connecticut, the state has 2 years after incarceration to go after funds to pay for incarceration…
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0231.htm
Under “Property subject to the State’s claim” specifically addresses lottery winnings.
He might be out of luck. Can’t find anything about Mass. law at the moment.
Actually, that seems very different to me than simply confiscating the lottery win, or refusing to pay it in the first place.
I’m not sure I can articulate why I’d have no trouble seeing that happen, but that I will be annoyed to see Massachusetts simply avoid paying him the lottery win in the first place.
I’m with the majority on this one. In the article, I can’t see any legal basis for withholding his winnings from him, but it’s perfectly legal to send him to prison for probation violation. If his bank robbery was related to his gambling habit, then a gambling prohibition was a perfectly reasonable condition for his probation, and it makes sense to strictly enforce it.
I’ve seen other cases where I thought the courts were too strict on probation and parole terms. There was one Kansas case where the probationer witnessed a crime, reported the crime to the police - and got sent straight to the slammer! Why? His probation terms required him to report any “contact” with the police to his probation officer; he overlooked this requirement, and thus got incarcerated for allowing his civic-mindedness to exceed his meticulous attention to his probation terms. He appealed and lost; I read the opinion.
Interesting side question: Suppose his mom had bought him the lottery ticket for a birthday present? Would he be in the clear?
It seems reasonable to me too, but then I wonder… What if he had robbed the bank in order to get money to buy, oh, let’s say, model railroad kits. Suppose he were a fanatic of model railroads, and needed more money to collect model railroad cars, etc. Would it be reasonable of his probation to prohibit him from buying model railroad cars with money from his legitimate paycheck?
It seems to me the penalty for violating probation is imprisonment and only imprisonment, and not forfeiting gambling winnings. The winnings could be taken if there were any unpaid fines and court costs still outstanding, but tacking on the penalty of “by the way, we’re taking your winnings” seems like overreaching.
Violating probation is against the law. No one should profit from violating the law.
The article mentions that he is receiving some kind of mental health treatment. If this is an indication that a gambling addiction was involved in his original crime, then it is even more important that he not be rewarded for gambling.
I expect winnning millions in a lottery is not going to help him stop gambling, so he will piss away the millions and wind up robbing banks again anyway.
No means no. Illegally buying a winning lottery ticket is the same as stealing it.
Regards,
Shodan
Shodan, so, should the State refund the purchase price of the other Lottery tickets he’s bought that weren’t winners, or does the State get to benefit from this guy’s “illegal” actions?
A foiled bank robber gets the same sentence as a successful one, but we don’t let any bank robbers keep the money.
The bank robbery money is the result of a crime. It belongs to someone. Playing the lottery, as has been pointed out, may be a violation of probation or parole, but it’s not a crime.
Another “me too” to the notion that if the law dictates that winnings will be forfeited, then too bad, no money for the winner. If not, he should be subject to the penalties associated with probation violation, bu the money is his.