Whole "LOTTO" Trouble!

Whole Lotto Trouble



For this LI couple, a $25M win was the ticket to court



By Chau Lam
STAFF WRITER

August 22, 2003

Love is a four-letter word, while Lotto is a five-letter one. And therein lies the tale.

Connie Parker hit a $25 million Lotto jackpot this year and then the 74-year-old Melville woman hit the road, her estranged husband said yesterday.

Kenneth Parker, 77, of Farmingdale, said he and his wife of 16 years were living happily in retirement. That changed, he said, when she refused to share the windfall from the New York State Lotto ticket. Now he has filed for divorce and is seeking his share.

"I was bitter," Parker said yesterday during a news conference at the Garden City office of his attorney, Dominic Barbara. "I still feel bitter towards her."

Connie Parker couldn't be reached for comment. But in papers filed with State Supreme Court Justice Anthony J. Falanga in Mineola, she asserted that she bought the winning ticket for the Feb. 12 drawing with her own money. And that, because the couple signed a prenuptial agreement, all the money was hers.