For purposes of this story, I am going to use the terms Plaintiff and Defendant, rather than names.

The story begins on April 25, 2017, but first, a little background information. The Defendant was living in a mobile home with his girlfriend and their two children.

The Plaintiff, a male friend of the Defendant, was living in the back part of the trailer.

The Plaintiff was admittedly addicted to methamphetamine, a self-described “meth head.”

The Plaintiff was homeless when he met the Defendant in January 2017.

The Defendant, feeling sorry for the Plaintiff, began giving him odd jobs to do around the house: taking care of the yard, the house, the dogs, etc.

At some point during the budding friendship, the Defendant saw the Plaintiff bathing in the hose. Seeing this, the Defendant asked the Plaintiff if he would like to move in with him (and the family). Of course, the invitation was accepted.

The night of April 25th is where the stories begin to diverge. The Plaintiff claimed that late in the afternoon, the Defendant “paid” him for services rendered around the property with $40 worth of meth. The Plaintiff then went over to a friend’s house and sold $20 worth of that meth. Next, the Plaintiff used the $20 to purchase two $10 scratch-off lottery tickets.

According to the Plaintiff, after purchasing the tickets, he did some “dumpster diving” before returning home. The Plaintiff alleged he returned home at approximately 4:30 a.m., then scratched off the ticket. The ticket was a million dollar winner. The Plaintiff was so high on meth he thought the ticket was a $100,000.00 winner. When the Plaintiff arrived at the homestead early that morning, he caused the dogs to bark, which woke up the Defendant. The Defendant came into the living room to find out what was going on. The Plaintiff told him that he (the Plaintiff) had won $100,000. The Plaintiff showed the Defendant the ticket, and the Defendant confirmed the winning ticket:

“Yes, it’s a winner for $100,000.” (In fact, it was a $1 million dollar winning ticket. You can’t make this stuff up, right?)

Anyway, the Plaintiff, thinking he won $100,000, offered to pay the Defendant $10,000 to take the ticket to Tallahassee and cash it for him. The government would take 25 percent, the Defendant would get his $10,000, and the Plaintiff would get the rest ($65,000). Needless to say, the Defendant’s version of events differs from the Plaintiff’s version. The Defendant’s version of the April 25-26 events goes like this:

The Defendant claims he gave the Plaintiff $30 for two purposes: to go buy the Defendant two scratch-off lottery tickets, and to get himself, the Plaintiff, some cigarettes. The Defendant did not see or hear from the Plaintiff until he returned home around 4:30 a.m. The barking dogs woke the Defendant up. The Plaintiff gave the Defendant the two lottery tickets and went back outside to quiet the barking dogs. The Defendant, who typically got up at 5 a.m. to go to work, put on a pot of coffee and scratched off the tickets—winning one million dollars. He woke up his girlfriend, made arrangements for the grandma to watch the children, and went to Tallahassee to cash in the ticket.

This whole case hinges on one point: If I give you $20 to go buy me beer, that’s not your beer, right? The lottery ticket is no different. If I gave you money to go buy me something, it doesn’t become yours just because you were the one who physically went to the store and purchased it. So the legal question is simple: did the Plaintiff use his own money to buy the tickets, or did he use the Defendant’s money to buy the tickets for the Defendant?

But that’s not all that happened here, so let’s keep going… The Defendant went to Tallahassee to cash the ticket on his behalf, as I mentioned earlier. Once the Defendant returned from Tallahassee, the Plaintiff said he asked the Defendant for the $65,000 from his winnings. The Defendant told the Plaintiff it would take a few days for the money to be placed into the Defendant’s account. The Plaintiff claimed he was then given $1000 to “hold him over.” (Remember, meth is involved in this case.) The Defendant, on the other hand, said he gave the Plaintiff money, but that it was more than $1,000: the Defendant claimed the Plaintiff had legal issues that needed financial attention, and that he (the Defendant) was simply helping his friend. We have to do some math on this one, because the amount of money allegedly given to the Plaintiff by the Defendant is crucial to both the Plaintiff’s case and Defendant’s case. The Plaintiff also claimed that a few days later, he was given $35,000 more dollars (making the total to date $36,000) of the $65,000. The Defendant says he never gave the Plaintiff $35,000. At some point in time, shortly after receiving the $35,000, the Plaintiff made his way to his criminal defense attorney’s office. I assume it was to pay the attorney for criminal services rendered on an unrelated matter.

The Plaintiff was carrying the money around in a backpack. Yep, a backpack.

At some point during the meeting with his criminal defense attorney, the Plaintiff said, “Hey, I won $100,000!” and showed him the money in his backpack. A lot of other things transpired with the Plaintiff, the attorney, and the $35,000, but that would make a two-hour movie, or book all by itself!

Anyway, at this point in the story, the Defendant had allegedly given the Plaintiff $36,000 of the agreed-upon $65,000. Around this time, the Defendant decided it was time for the Plaintiff to find another place to live. Each party’s version of events differs again at this point. The Defendant claims that he planned to give his friend money to get a vehicle and a place to live. The Plaintiff claims he was getting “kicked out” because the Defendant did not want him (the Plaintiff) to know the ticket was a million dollar winner. (From the Plaintiff’s perspective, it would have been difficult for the Defendant to spend all that money under his nose.)

After a few more weeks, the Plaintiff moved out, but he was angry about it. After all, he had given the Defendant $10,000 to cash in the winning lottery ticket, and had now been kicked out.

The saga continues.

In the Plaintiff’s version of events, he was still owed $29,00.00. The relationship had gone south by now. Accordingly, the Defendant did not give the Plaintiff any more money. The Plaintiff and Defendant communicated via text messages at this point. (Public service announcement: although somewhat gibberish, the texts did not support the Defendant’s position. Be careful what you text.)

So what did the Plaintiff do? He reached out to his criminal defense attorney for help. The attorney allegedly read the text message and came to the conclusion that his client, the Plaintiff, was still owed $29,000. So the attorney called the Defendant and demanded payment in the amount of $29,000.

Initially, the Defendant denied owing the Plaintiff any money. I mean, the ticket belonged to the Defendant, right? But there were those text messages. The attorney said to the Defendant, “I read the text message.”

The Defendant allegedly responded, “Oh, you did?”

Shortly thereafter, $29,000 was wired into the Plaintiff’s bank account. However, it was the Defendant’s position that he did not owe the Plaintiff any money, but gave him the money to get the attorney “off his back,” and because the Defendant and Plaintiff had been friends at one time. (I cannot say it enough: meth was a factor in all decision making at this time. The Defendant just wanted the Plaintiff to leave him alone.)

End of the story, right? Nope!

The Defendant started spending his winnings: cars, clothes, new house, etc., at which point the Plaintiff’s girlfriend got suspicious. Where was all this money coming from? $10,000 does not buy all of the things being purchased by the Defendant.

So what did the girlfriend do? She went to the Florida Lottery website and discovered the ticket was a million dollar winner. (Unlike other states, Florida Lottery ticket winners are not confidential.)

Boom! As you can imagine, the Plaintiff made a beeline to his attorney’s office. Being a criminal defense attorney, the first thing the Plaintiff’s attorney did was call the police to report a crime: fraud and theft.

Next, as a former prosecutor, he called one of his old buddies on the police force and asked the detective to investigate the case. Again, there was so much more that occurred, but that is fodder for another day. The detective investigated the case. He did not find any evidence that supported the Plaintiff’s position that the ticket belonged to him. No criminal charges were ever filed.

Dead end.

So what does any good lawyer do at this point? Yep, file a civil lawsuit against the Defendant. The criminal attorney filed an ex parte motion to freeze any money still in the Defendant’s bank account. However, by the time this happened, there was a little less than $10,000 remaining in the account. You can see the full scope of what the Plaintiff was claiming in the Amended Complaint included in the next couple pages. (Basically, it shows the Plaintiff’s position on exactly what I’ve explained so far. These documents are all public record, but for the purposes of this book, I’ve redacted the names and identifying info.)