A New Hampshire woman who says she has a Powerball ticket that won a $559.7 million jackpot wants a court order allowing her to stay anonymous, saying she made a "huge mistake" in signing the ticket without consulting a lawyer first.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe, filed a complaint last week in Hillsborough Superior Court in Nashua saying she signed the back of the ticket following the Jan. 6 drawing, the nation's eighth-largest lottery jackpot. She thought she was required to do so as directed by information on the state lottery commission's website.
Under New Hampshire law, a lottery winner's name, town and prize amount are public information. But after the woman contacted a lawyer, she learned that she could have shielded her identity by instead writing the name of a trust.
The woman hasn't turned in her ticket yet, but she showed lottery officials a photocopy of the front. She said lottery officials told her they would be compelled to disclose her identity if someone filed a Right to Know request. Her lawyers argue her privacy interest outweighs the insignificant public interest in disclosing her name.
New Hampshire is one of a handful of states that allows trusts to anonymously claim lottery prizes. In 2016, a New Hampshire family that won a $487 million Powerball jackpot remained anonymous as lawyers for their trust claimed it.
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