New Jersey couple claims share of Big Game jackpot

Jeff Linkous

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

TRENTON, N.J. -- A husband and wife claimed a $58.9 million share of the Big Game lottery jackpot today, a day after state lottery officials debunked a claim to the prize by some nursing home employees in an office pool.

Jorge M. and Joanne S. Lopes, of Englishtown, held one of the three wining tickets from the $331 million prize drawn on April 16. The couple planned to speak to the media at a news conference this morning.

The couple bought $5 in tickets from a Hillside convenience store. They opted for a lump-sum payout, thereby reducing the prize. Taxes will cut it further to $43 million.

Winning tickets in the multistate lottery, with odds of 76 million to 1, were sold in Georgia, New Jersey and Illinois, where a winner has yet to come forward. Erika Greene, a 20-year-old warehouse worker in Georgia, claimed her share as a lump-sum on April 17.

On Monday lottery officials dashed the hopes of a group of Newark nursing home workers who played the Big Game as a pool. The workers from Newark Extended Care Facility Inc. believed the winner was a co-worker who wouldn't share the ticket with them.

Despite Angelito Marquez's insistence the group had lost, co-workers became suspicious of his absence from work in the days after the drawing and hired a lawyer.

Lottery officials settled the matter by inviting four members of the pool to view store videotape of the person validating the ticket at the Hillside convenience store where it was purchased. The nursing home pool's tickets were bought at a liquor store in Union.

The lottery's review found that Marquez bought tickets for the office pool on April 15; two of those tickets were worth a dollar each.

"It's a bittersweet day, to say the least," said Anthony H. Guerino, an attorney who represented 10 workers. "They've always been a spiritual group. I could see them deflate."

Several workers said they were disappointed, but wished the winner well and said they held no bad feelings for Marquez.

"We never really claimed the ticket. We just wanted to know," Ida Davis said.

Marquez's lawyer, Donald DiGioia, said the co-workers suspected Marquez had the winning ticket because he called in sick for three days with the flu after the April 16 drawing.

"They just put two and two together and got five," the lawyer said.