Elderly couple end marriage in row over payout from $25-million lottery
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) - The $25-million US jackpot was supposed to change their lives.
Boy, did it ever. A woman who bought the winning ticket on a shopping trip for a Valentine's Day card last February agreed in a Nassau County courtroom to give her estranged husband - who is suffering from terminal lung cancer - a share of the winnings as part of their divorce settlement.
"They win a $25-million lottery," lawyer Dominic Barbara, who represented Kenneth Parker, told Newsday. "Then they get divorced. And one of them is dying."
The settlement was reached Tuesday just as the couple's divorce case was to go to trial.
"She is happy that this is over," said Connie Parker's lawyer, Mark Brancato.
Neither lawyer would disclose the settlement terms, but published reports have said Kenneth Parker would get about one-third of the $7.3-million US jackpot Connie Parker, 74, received after taxes.
Kenneth Parker, 77, filed for divorce last summer after learning his wife of 16 1/2 years wasn't going to share her winnings. He contends he gave her $20 to buy the Lotto ticket, but she said in court papers that she bought the winning ticket with her own money.
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