Court gives police most of $1 million lottery prize

MEDFORD, Ore. – Medford police can collect much of a $1 million prize from the Oregon Lottery that came from a scratch ticket bought with a dead woman’s credit card, Oregon’s appeals court has ruled.

Oregon allows police to keep money seized in criminal activity. The winnings were awarded to the police when Christina Elizabeth Goodenow, 45, pleaded no contest to using the card that belonged to her boyfriend’s mother, the Medford Mail Tribune reported Thursday.

Chief Tim George said the windfall will be used to expand the police property and evidence room.

Under state forfeiture laws, 10 percent of the money goes to the state.

And, when Goodenow was arrested, she had only about $11,000 left from the first of 20 annual payments, police said.

Before she was arrested in 2005, Goodenow used the card illegally to make about $12,000 in purchases, including a lottery ticket from a Central Point store.

When she won the prize, payable over 20 years, she asked the Lottery to keep quiet about it, saying she was a domestic violence victim.

Police said they caught wind of the winnings a few weeks later because Goodenow continued to use the card.