A man claimed his $167.3million lottery jackpot, only to be arrested and put behind bars the very next day.
James Farthing, 50, won the Powerball drawing on April 26 and posed smiling with a gigantic ‘Jackpot Winner’ check on Monday alongside his girlfriend, Jacqueline Fightmaster, 42, and his mother Linda Grizzle, 77.
Farthing, who bought the winning ticket at Clark’s Pump-N-Shop in Georgetown, planned to split the winnings with his mom because they frequently played together.
‘It’s going to be a good Mother’s Day,’ said Grizzle, according to the Kentucky Lottery. ‘This is going to pay off my debt.’
Powerball winner James Farthing (middle) posed with his girlfriend Jacqueline Fightmaster (right) and his mother Linda Grizzle (left)
James Farthing has been charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer as well as two misdemeanor counts (Picture: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)
But some of the fortune will may go toward bailing Farthing out of an unexpected situation.
On the evening after appearing at the lottery’s press conference, Farthing got into an altercation with a man at the TradeWinds Resort in St Pete Beach, Florida, and allegedly punched him in the face, The Smoking Gun reported.
Pinellas County sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Areostatico said he stepped in to try to break up the fight and was ‘kicked in the face’ by Farthing.
After reviewing his body camera footage, Areostatico said he ‘observed the defendant winding up his right leg kicking your affiant in the face in an attempt to injure and or incapacitate myself’.
Jacqueline Fightmaster has been charged with disorderly intoxication (Picture: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)
Areostatico ordered Farthing to turn around and place his hands behind his back but he ‘refused to do so and attempted to flee on foot out of the hotel’, states his arrest affidavit.
Simultaneously, Fightmaster was ‘actively engaging in argument involving other guests and her boyfriend’ and ‘trying to fight the other patrons at the bar’, according to her arrest affidavit. She ‘appeared very intoxicated and was yelling, screaming, and making incoherent statements’, it states.
Farthing – who turns out to be an ex-convict – has been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting officer without violence and simple battery. His bond was set at $11,500 but he was still in custody on Friday because of a felony warrant for parole violation out of Kentucky.
Fightmaster was also arrested after hotel staff wished to press charges, and faces a count of disorderly intoxication. She was released the next day.
On the day he held the check, Farthing had not yet decided if he would take 30 annuity payments or a one-time cash payout of $77.3million.
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