Woman charged over lost lottery ticket claim
Filing false police report could bring six-month sentence, fine
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Elecia Battle, center, and her husband, right, listen to their attorney, Sheldon Starke, in his office Tuesday.
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(CNN) -- The woman who claimed to have lost a winning lottery ticket and then acknowledged that she lied about it was charged with one count of filing a false police report, a South Euclid, Ohio, police spokeswoman said Friday.
The spokeswoman said Elecia Battle will appear in court January 15 on the misdemeanor charge and could be sentenced to six months in jail and fined $1,000 if convicted.
Thursday, Battle dropped a lawsuit she had filed to block the $162 million payout of the Mega Millions lottery jackpot and admitted she had lied about losing the ticket.
"I wanted to win. The numbers were so overwhelming. I did buy a ticket and I lost it. I wanted to win so bad for my kids, my family," she said.
Battle had said she lost the ticket when she dropped her purse outside the store where it was sold, in the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid.
Rebecca Jemison was declared the jackpot winner. She chose the cash option for the drawing, which results in a $94 million one-time payout -- about $67 million after taxes.
