LINCOLN PARK, Mich. — A Michigan lottery winner was charged with fraud Tuesday for collecting food stamps and public health insurance despite pocketing a $735,000 jackpot.
Amanda Clayton, 25, was silent during a brief court hearing after spending a night in jail. A not-guilty plea was entered, and her lawyer vowed to fight the charges.
Clayton is the second person in Michigan caught with food stamps despite newly minted wealth. Gov. Rick Snyder last week signed a law requiring the lottery to notify the Human Services Department when someone wins at least $1,000.
Clayton is charged with failing to inform the state that her income had changed as a result of the lottery prize and a job. She won a $1 million jackpot on the game show "Make Me Rich!" and chose a $735,000 lump sum, before taxes, last September.
"It's simply common sense that million-dollar lottery winners forfeit their right to public assistance," said Attorney General Bill Schuette, whose office filed the charges. The maximum penalty is four years in prison.
Clayton, the mother of a 1-year-old, is accused of collecting $5,475 in food stamps and public medical benefits over eight months until Detroit TV station WDIV broke the story in March. She told WDIV that she believed she could collect food aid because she didn't have a job at the time.
The amount of money is a speck compared with the roughly $250 million that Michigan spends each month just on food assistance. Schuette spokeswoman Joy Yearout declined to comment on why the attorney general chose felony charges over a civil lawsuit or why Clayton was arrested and locked up overnight for a non-violent crime.
Outside the court in suburban Detroit, defense attorney Stanley Wise said he would ask that charges be dropped at the next hearing, May 1, when a judge must decide whether there's enough evidence to send the case to trial. He didn't elaborate on his strategy.
"They want to make an example of her," Wise later told The Associated Press, referring to state officials. "She's offered to repay the money. They haven't even sent her a bill. If that were the only issue, it would be over and done. They have chosen to exploit this for their purposes, and we have to deal with it."
Clayton declined to comment after posting $1,000 bail. Wise advised her not to speak to reporters.
Euline Clayton told reporters that her daughter used bad judgment but that a criminal case is "crap." She said Amanda called the Human Services Department about her lottery winnings but could never reach anyone.
The charges "are very extreme. ... They arrested her like a vulture," the elder Clayton said. "She didn't steal $1 million."
Clayton wasn't the first Michigan lottery winner to keep claiming public benefits. Leroy Fick, 60, of Bay County was using the food program despite winning an $850,000 lump sum prize in 2010. He told officials about his wealth but was allowed to temporarily keep his card because one-time windfalls at that time were not counted as regular income under the program.
The state has since banned anyone with assets of more than $5,000, excluding a car, from the food stamp program. That knocked Fick off the rolls.
Michigan Human Service Director Maura Corrigan said the new law requiring communications between the lottery and her agency "will make it easier to ensure that outrages involving instant millionaires on public assistance don't happen in the future."
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"It's simply common sense that million-dollar lottery winners forfeit their right to public assistance," said Attorney General Bill Schuette" WTG Michigan....
Heard a quote from a TV interview- "I thought they would cut me off, since they didn't I thought it was ok".... nice try...
"their right to public assistance" <-- What 's wrong with this phrase, class?
If Dept of Human Services had been dpi
G their job efficiently she would have never still been getting the benefit. They could not properly arrest Zimmerman but they improperly arrested this woman for something ridiculous as this
Improperly arrested her?Where are you from,planet liberal?She's a thief.
The point he is trying to make is someone who shot someone in cold blood got away with it for two months without any charges being filed.
All these comments from one "side" or another are laughable. It REALLY shows the ignorance of the poster.......
Zimmerman has absolutly NOTHING to do with this story...NOTHING.
The point is you can commit murder and walk away free, but don't steal a little bit of money or else they will lock you up for life.
Thats the trouble with you liberals,if you can't make an intelligent comment on the story,you want to muddy the story with a bunch of nonsense that has NOTHING to do with the story.ZIMMERMAN is different story altogether!!
She DESERVES to be locked up.But not for life.She's a THIEF!What is it about that that you don't understand?
The Zimmerman story is in Florida.This story is in Michigan,there is no connection between the two storys...NONE.
You the one who can't not respond to the point. If someone does not fit into you small wall you just ignore it and problem solved.
Brick wall!
T.T. as in, tough teacher, call on me, hand up,
dang....you called on the dummy,
yea, the answer is...get ready.....the phrase does not appear in the "bill of rights"
also is not found in any amendments.
Not yet.Obama is working on it,though.
well the law did only pass last week it saYS IN THE article. and something about million dollar lotto winners should forfeit their right to.... its not a right if you go to jail for excercising it. it should be a lotto winners right to be treated exactly the same as any other millionaire. not singled out for special treatment. sure the law should gover people on high income or wealth not pulling a wlefare chcck. but to discrominate soley agaislt lotto winners seems unlawful to me.
he better work overtime cause he has'nt done anything on reg. time.
sav,
you sound like a reasonable person,
but still I wonder if where you live this stuff goes to the degree it does here.
I lived in MI for 22 years with my ex's family. The sense of entitlement is thick, and many make it a game to extract as much funds from the state as possible whether they truly need it or not. On the opposite end of the spectrum are those that would starve rather than ask for a handout.
Good for MI clamping down on the cheaters.
indeed it does.HAYMAKER
i recall there was a story of a lotto winning family that blew the lot in 2 years. cars houses etc and stayed on welfare the whole time. by the tim the gov cough up with them they where broke again.
but as they had defrauded the gov when they did have money the house was taken in compensation. for the money the family got during the 2 years!
all in all they are poorer than when they started. and whenb they get out of jail will be on welfare again!
i guess we have a system like you used ot have, where it is on a persons own conscious to declare ot not declare any assets/ income. idealy that is all that is needed. there's people above could have blow it all and gone back on welfare., as long as they didnt have the assets and income, while claiming the benefit. and there would have been no jail time either.
so we dont have specific laws about lotto winners, we have if you have assets, theyre deemed to EARN a set % income ea year, and you income is assume to be that deemed income. weather or not you have said assets invested in anythiung.
atm thats around %4. so a $1m lottto prize , is assume to earn you $40k a year income, and any weelfare claims will assume you already have 40k coming in.
now if you actually earn more or less from the assets; doesnt concern the welfare office, they will pay you based on you earning 40k, for that year. then asses you again next year, based on next years rates and stuff.
but then we dont have food stamps, and welfare is federally ran not state ran.
If this woman was african american, i can imagine the vile comments. Since she is not...comments are relatively conservative, typical!
Clayton won over $700,000 last September but continued to collect the welfare benefits.
"Euline Clayton told reporters that her daughter used bad judgment but that a criminal case is "crap." She said Amanda called the Human Services Department about her lottery winnings but could never reach anyone."
Even her mother knew she shouldn't spend the welfare money. Just the fact that Amanda called the department proves that she wasn't sure if the welfare money was hers to spend. With over $500,000 she certainly didn't need the welfare money and could have waited until she talked to someone in the department.
I don't know why you're comparing the time it took to file charges with the Florida case, but there is an obvious reason; "We have to have a reasonable certainty of conviction before filing charges," the prosecutor said. Had Zimmerman been charged with first degree murder that night as you're suggesting, there would be no reasonable certainty of conviction.
Both defendants will have their day in court and LP will probably report the Clayton verdict and the Zimmerman verdict will be discussed everywhere else.
what else would u expect from the tea party clan.if they aren't calling everyone libs,their arguing over what people receiving food stamps should buy.oh. and last but not least making comments about the current president.non of which have to do with the lottery.(which is what I thought this forum was created for)but like they say."you can lead a *** to water but you can't make him think"
250 million a month , 250 million a month, just in michigan
Todd please tell me thats a typo, we only have 11 million people here, with roughly 3 and half million on welfare, thats a cost of 83 thousand per person a month.
Is that the cost of this program?
Even at 250 million a year thats enough for every man, woman and child to become a millionaire.
To all you people in your 20's 30's 40's and 50's who are capable of working and just refuse to, you can kiss my half breed ass, I AM DONE, I am done working for you.
I HOPE YOU FALL ON THE FLOOR AND THE DOG EATS YOU.
what are you half of?
Ummm.... 250 million for a year divided by 11 million Michigan residents equates to $22.73 per person... Just a little shy of becoming a millionaire.
More math!!! 250 million a month divided by 3 and half million on welfare = $71.43 per recipient. For it to cost 83 thousand per person a month would require 3,500,000 X 83,000 = 290,500,000,000.00 (290 Billion, 500 million dollars) per month. A slight budget adjustment.
Hey genius this is 250,000,000.00 now you redo the math
You forgot some zeros.
Yes... I know. 250,000,000.00 / 3,500,000 = $71.42857143... round to $71.43. NO ZERO'S WERE FORGOTTEN. Seems your math techniques may need some refinement.