By rssfeeds-admin After months of being anonymous, the woman is now speaking publicly. Her name is Kristen Moriarty, a mom of two who describes herself as not a very exciting person. “I’m really boring,” Moriarty said from the witness stand.
When asked why she chose to reveal her identity now, her attorney Randy Howry responded through text: “Tired of being ignored. Ready to fight.”
Testimony on Tuesday revealed Rey and the TLC do not currently view Moriarty as the winner of the $83.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot that was drawn on Feb. 17. “We know there’s a winner. We know she’s a claimant,” Rey said from the stand when asked if he believes Moriarty won.
We also heard from Sheila Medina, the validations coordinator for the TLC. She was in the room when Moriarty and her attorney presented the winning ticket at the commission’s office. Medina testified that Moriarty fully filled out the winner’s claim form but said the validation of the ticket is not complete. Until her claim is validated, Moriarty is considered a claimant.
Moriarty’s attorneys questioned Rey on what else needed to be done to complete the validation process. All Rey could say was there was more paperwork involved, but eventually he did say a decision was made before he assumed his role to stop the claims process as the Texas Rangers investigated the drawing win.
Gov. Greg Abbott called on the Texas Rangers to investigate Moriarty’s jackpot win and another April 2023 drawing which resulted in an entity known as Rook TX winning a $95 million jackpot. That order from the governor came just a week after the Feb. 17 lottery drawing.
The concern from policy makers and government leaders stemmed from the presence of lottery courier services. Those services allow people to purchase lottery tickets online via an application on your phone without ever having to set foot in a store.
Some of the courier services owned storefronts with lottery machines inside. That allowed them to print out tickets whenever they received an order through their app or website.
Lawmakers argued those services are illegal and against the state’s lottery code. Moriarty used one of those services, the Jackpocket app, to purchase $20 worth of tickets in February, which was printed out in a north Austin store called Winners Corner. One of her tickets had all six numbers to win the jackpot.
One week after her win the Texas Lottery Commission’s executive director at the time, Ryan Mindell, announced the agency is moving to ban those services from the state.
Moriarty and her team feel they have gone through the proper process and are owed the winnings. At one point, she became emotional on the witness stand saying, “I did not do anything wrong,” through tears.
She and her legal team claim her prize winnings are in eminent harm because the TLC is on the cusp of being abolished by the state government. The legislature passed Senate Bill 3070 this session, which will dissolve the TLC and move the lottery game under the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). The governor has not signed the bill yet, but Moriarty and her attorneys worry it could lead to a drop in her prize money.
Rey said the prize winnings are being held in a completely separate fund from the fund the agency uses for their operating costs. He testified the money will stay there until someone claims the prize, and if not, that money will go into the Foundation School fund, the primary source of funding for Texas public schools.
Earlier this month a state district judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the Texas Lottery Commission from spending any of the jackpot money on internal costs or paying that money out to other lottery winners. Judge Jan Soifer extended that TRO for another week on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the TDLR did confirm the prize money would be transferred to its control if the governor signs the bill to eliminate the lottery commission. The spokesperson also added, “TDLR agency leadership has met with Lottery Commission leadership to discuss the transition process and those talks continue.”
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