Posted on 09/26/2014 5:27:07 AM PDT by raccoonradio
A Haverhill man who scratched a $1 million-winning Lottery ticket five weeks ago saw his luck go bad Wednesday when cops raided his subsidized apartment and found cocaine, a pot-growing operation, brass knuckles, a machete — and EBT cards in his and his wife’s names, authorities said.
Gary L. Bond, 32, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Haverhill District Court to cocaine possession and trafficking charges, and marijuana possession charges. His wife, Fritzlaine Liautaud, 30, pleaded not guilty to similar charges Wednesday and posted $7,500 bail.
Yesterday, Liautaud posted her husband’s bail, after asking a court administrator, “The $50,000 has to be in a check, right? It can’t be cash?”
She declined comment, as did Bond before he was whisked away from the courthouse in a blue BMW SUV.
Haverhill police raided Bond’s Arch Street apartment Wednesday, where they found more than an ounce of marijuana, a “sophisticated” pot-growing operation with lamps under a tent in his bedroom and 21 grams of cocaine, brass knuckles and a machete, cops and prosecutors said. Cops also found EBT cards in the couple’s names as well as evidence the pair was benefitting from subsidized housing, prosecutors said.
“You would think that someone who won that kind of money would take it and invest it,” said Jennifer Hebert, 40, one of Bond’s neighbors. “It’s sad. ... It’s kind of crazy someone with all that money would risk it.”
Bond collected a one-time payment of $455,000 after taxes on Aug. 20, Lottery officials said, on the $1 million prize he won on a scratch ticket. Lottery Executive Director Beth Bresnahan said Bond’s winnings were included in a Sept. 9 report to the state Department of Transitional Assistance. DTA spokesman Matthew Kitsos said the agency is “investigating.”
Liautaud insisted that Bond wasn’t dealing cocaine.
“My husband won the Lottery, yes,” she told WHDH-TV. “So is it against the law to play the Lottery now?”
Police raided the apartment after an informant made two undercover buys, said Assistant District Attorney Stephen Patten. Bond showed cops a doctor’s note saying he needed marijuana for his ailing back, but Patten said that doesn’t excuse dope dealing.
Liautaud told WHDH her husband “thought he was doing everything by the books for the medical marijuana.” Patten sought $100,000 bail, saying Bond was a “twice-already convicted cocaine dealer.” Court records show he was convicted of cocaine distribution in 2004 and 2006.
Bond’s lawyer Scott F. Gleason argued police found no evidence he was selling cocaine and called the prosecutor’s high bail request “outrageous.”
A bullet to the forehead of the two offenders should set an example. Living in MA and so f’ing sick of the corruption here.
People who are on welfare and win on the lottery should have to repay all money they got while on welfare.
That cash was meant to buy food and clothes, not pissed away chasing a pipe dream.
Well, to be fair the government did keep $550,000 of it
Supposedly the winning ticket was bought via EBT card and it was said on Boston’s Howie Carr radio show that the ticket was only... $20...
My god.. typical lotto player...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA......
Crime needs to be punished and clearly we see he was a criminal.
my reservations here center on the bust timing.
in other words the justice system saw he had money money that he might have to pay to the justice system, and lo and behold, he gets busted.
it suggests that they busted him for financial reasons. If he had no cash, would there have been any bust..?
this is almost like civil for fritter where property is targeted in order to permit seizure
Not really, the winning ticket would have paid out $1 mil over a 20 yr. period, he chose the cash now option, which paid $450K. He owed tax on that amount.
Defensive weapons, forbidden to the peons, Second Amendment or not! Even criminals have the right to self defense...
Hahahahahahahaha!
Make them pay back every dime of their EBT fraud.
“People who are on welfare and win on the lottery should have to repay all money they got while on welfare.”
Makes perfect sense. Estates are wiped out every day by end of life medicare bills
“Supposedly the winning ticket was bought via EBT card and it was said on Boston’s Howie Carr radio show that the ticket was only... $20..”
If that’s the case Mass needs to correct that now. In my state lottery tickets are cash only
‘it suggests that they busted him for financial reasons.”
That is the main reason so many guilty folks don’t get prison time. If they go to jail the state pays for their food and lodging. If they get probation, they pay fines and fees
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