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Friday, February 17, 2006
Ind. Decisions - Challenge to lottery law rejected
Kevin Corcoran reports today in the Indianapolis Star:
A former lottery security official was dealt a blow Thursday in his effort to have a judge dismiss a felony charge alleging he disclosed lottery secrets in an effort to rig a million-dollar scratch-off game.
Marion Superior Court Judge Grant W. Hawkins rejected William C. Foreman's constitutional challenge of the lottery secrecy law, setting the stage for an appeal that could delay Foreman's trial indefinitely.His Indianapolis attorney, one-time Hoosier Lottery Director Jack Crawford, said Foreman would appeal the ruling as far as the Indiana Supreme Court if necessary.
Foreman is raising a constitutional challenge to the nation's harshest penalty for breaching lottery security.Thirty-nine states have lotteries, but only Indiana has a penalty of up to 50 years in prison for defrauding, stealing from or trying to steal from a lottery. Most other financial crimes in Indiana carry eight-year maximum sentences.
Hawkins ruled that Foreman had failed to prove the 50-year maximum sentence is so disproportionate to sentences for other financial crimes that it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 17, 2006 08:04 AM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions