DID THE CHRISTIAN REALLY “WIN” THE LOTTERY?
(FOLLOW – UP)
January 29, 2004
The following articles from
paulharvey.com and West Virginia’s Charleston Gazette one year since the
Christian won the lottery provide their own witness to who really “won”
in this matter. See if you think the fruit portrayed by these articles would
persuade you that this lottery winner truly is a Christian…
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Paul Harvey.com Noon
Broadcast, January 26, 2004.
“Yesterday’s
names—Jack Whittaker of Nitro, West Virginia—he won the largest single jackpot
in lottery history Christmas, 19—[no,no] just this last Christmas—2002—but he’s
been in trouble ever since—drunk driving, trying to assault the manager of a
tavern—one thing or another. The man who won $315,000,000 dollars is regularly
at the race track giving it back.”
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January 27, 2004
Powerball winner Whittaker charged with DUI
By Charles Shumaker
STAFF WRITER
Putnam County’s Powerball jackpot winner, Jack Whittaker, faces a
drunken-driving charge after he was found slumped over the steering wheel of
his car alongside Interstate 64 near Nitro on Sunday.
A courtesy patrol driver first noticed Whittaker’s car around 5:30
Sunday evening as it was pulled alongside the road during a winter storm that
covered area roads in ice and snow.
State Police Senior Trooper B.R. Morris filed the misdemeanor charge
against Whittaker, citing the Scott Depot man’s failed field sobriety tests and
his 0.190 blood alcohol level, according to a criminal complaint filed in
Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
Morris wrote that he tried numerous times to wake Whittaker and noted
his car’s keys were in the ignition and the vehicle’s motor was running.
Whittaker told Morris he had a drink of alcohol, but earlier in the day.
“I’m nowhere near intoxicated,” Whittaker told a television news station
as he was escorted into Kanawha County Magistrate Court on Sunday. Whittaker
remains free on bond.
Whittaker, 56, won the $314.9 million Powerball jackpot on Christmas in
2002 and chose to take a $113 million lump-sum payment.
Whittaker’s arraignment on the drunken-driving charge follows an
altercation earlier this month. Whittaker was arrested in Putnam County after
he allegedly tried to hit Todd Parsons, a manager of Billy Sundays Bar and
Grill in St. Albans, when he was asked to leave. Whittaker allegedly threatened
to have Parsons and his family killed, State Police reported.
Whittaker also has had portions of his fortune stolen on two occasions.
Most recently, someone stole $100,000 in cash from his sport-utility vehicle
while it was parked outside his home.
In August, $545,000 in cash and cashier’s checks was stolen from his car
outside the Pink Pony strip club at Cross Lanes. The money was recovered and
two bar employees were charged in the theft.
“It’s been a rough few weeks,” Whittaker said Sunday. “It doesn’t bother
me because I can tell everyone to kiss off. But my wife, she’s having a hard
time with it.”
Whittaker spent millions of his winnings to set up his nonprofit Jack
Whittaker Foundation to help West Virginians find jobs, buy food or receive an
education.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
To contact staff writer Charles Shumaker, use e-mail or call 348-1240.