Claimant to lottery ticket once charged with fraud

? A woman who’s suing to block payment of a $162 million lottery prize to the validated winner has a criminal record that includes convictions for misuse of a credit card and criminal trespassing.

When asked about past run-ins with the law in Cleveland suburbs, Elecia Battle said she was charged but not convicted, even though court and police records show convictions.

“I’m done with that,” said Battle, 40. “I paid the fine. That’s end of story.”

While working at a Richmond Heights pharmacy in 1999, Battle used a customer’s credit card number to make purchases, police said. She paid a $450 fine for misuse of a credit card, and a 10-day jail sentence was suspended.

Battle was convicted in 2000 in Cleveland Heights of assault for grabbing a drug store clerk’s hair and scratching her, according to police records. Battle got a suspended sentence.

She was convicted of criminal trespassing in 2002 and paid restitution of about $1,250, according to South Euclid court records. Fines were suspended because she was indigent.

Her laywer, Sheldon Starke, said at a news conference that he planned to ask a judge to force the lottery to give him access to the winning ticket, which was turned in by Rebecca Jemison, 34, of South Euclid.

“We would want this tested by an outside expert, such things as testing for prints or DNA,” Starke said.

Friday, Battle said she had lost the winning lottery ticket, but Jemison came forward with the ticket Tuesday, along with a receipt.