INDIANAPOLIS – A scam to claim a $2 million Hoosier Lottery scratch-off ticket has landed a central Indiana man, his wife and his brother behind bars on charges of theft, fraud and forgery, authorities said Thursday.
Three Hendricks County residents — Joseph Parsley, 29; his wife, 28-year-old Ashlee Parsley; and his brother, Jackie Parsley II, 35 — were charged in the scheme in which the woman redeemed the ticket stolen from the family's Plainfield liquor store last year, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said at a news conference Thursday.
Jackie Parsley managed the store where Ashlee, whose last name at the time was Campbell because she hadn't yet married Joseph Parsley, claimed she had bought the $2 million ticket, Curry said. State law forbids lottery retailers or their relatives from buying tickets from their own retail establishments.
The ticket was among a package of $20 unsold tickets that were stolen from the store last year around the time the store's lottery equipment was being deactivated, a probable cause affidavit said. The equipment was reactivated at Jackie Parsley's request, creating the time window during which Ashley Campbell claimed to have bought the winning ticket.
She claimed the prize at Hoosier Lottery headquarters in Indianapolis last October, collecting $1.14 million, apparently in post-tax winnings.
The brothers' uncle, after learning she had won the prize and suspecting that Jackie Parsley had stolen the tickets, alerted lottery officials, triggering the investigation, the affidavit said.
Investigators obtained video from the liquor store to verify that Ashlee Parsley had bought the ticket when she claimed she had, but the video was corrupted. After a hard drive containing the video was rebuilt and cloned by the Secret Service, it showed her assertion was false, the affidavit said.
Other video from the store showed the brothers high-fiving after Jackie Parsley redeemed a $25 winning ticket from the same stolen package of tickets at a nearby gas station.
Investigators have seized the assets and frozen the accounts of the trio, Curry said. Those assets include lakefront home and several vehicles bought with the fraudulent winnings.
Online court records did not show any attorneys for the three who could comment on the case.
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