Jack Whittaker
CHARLESTON - Before an assembled jury could enter a courtroom in Kanawha Circuit Court, Powerball winner Jack Whittaker and a woman who accused him of assault reached a settlement.
The case was to be heard before Judge Tod Kaufman, but C.D. Fortner, who says she was assaulted by Whittaker while she worked as a floor attendant at the Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center in Cross Lanes, agreed on a settlement, though the amount of the settlement was not announced.
Two other floor attendants at Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center in Cross Lanes also are suing Whittaker for allegedly assaulting them in 2003.
In 2002, Whittaker won the single-largest lottery payout of $315 million with a cash option of more than $113 million.
But since then, he's had several run-ins the law. He was charged with DUI in Kanawha County in January 2004 after he was found sleeping in his vehicle along Interstate 64 in Nitro. Kanawha Magistrate Tim Halloran later suppressed sobriety test results, causing the case to be dropped.
Later that year, Whittaker was charged with -- and later pleaded no contest to -- assaulting a bar manager in Putnam County. He was put on two years probation and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Earlier this year, two Summers County women filed a federal civl suit accusing Whittaker of assault and battery, groping them, threatening to kill one of their friends and illegally firing a gun.
