Sexual Predator Wins $3 Million Lottery Prize

Scour the Florida Lottery website and one of the state’s most recent winners won’t be found in media releases and photographs announcing lucky new millionaires.

That’s because the Florida Lottery has taken down references to Timothy Dale Poole’s $3 million scratch-off ticket win.

The 43-year-old Mount Dora man’s photograph, however, still appears on another state website – the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That agency has listed Poole as a registered sexual predator since a 2002 adjudication in a sexual battery case involving a minor under the age of 12.

See Also:

• Pasco Sheriff Backing Tougher Sex Offender Rules
• How to Track Sex Offenders in Florida

Poole it seems has been arrested 12 times in Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel. He was arrested in 2001 on charges of sexual battery on a girl under the age of 12, FDLE’s website indicates. He’s also been arrested for stealing nearly $20,000 in food stamps, the paper pointed out.

Despite those crimes, Poole was able to collect a lump-sum payment of just over $2.2 million for his $3 million ticket earlier this week, CBS reported.

“Florida law does not allow the lottery to withhold payment from a winner based on his/her criminal record,” the station quoted a lottery spokeswoman as saying.

While a photograph of Poole holding a giant check appeared on the Lottery’s website earlier this week, the agency chose to take it down.

“We chose to not draw additional attention to this particular winner,” Shelly Gerteisen, communications manager for the Florida Lottery, told the Sentinel.

Timothy Dale Poole/Florida Department of Law Enforcement