Whittaker
WINFIELD – Powerball winner Jack Whittaker again has found himself as a defendant in a lawsuit.
Whittaker and Whittaker LLC, one of his businesses, has been sued by BrickStreet Mutual Insurance over failure to pay workers' compensation premiums.
BrickStreet attorney Clinton W. Smith filed the suit Aug. 31 in Putnam Circuit Court.
In the complaint, BrickStreet says Whittaker and Whittaker LLC owe $45,410 in premiums. The insurer seeks that amount, pre- and post-judgment interest, late charges, collection fees, costs and other relief.
Already a wealthy contractor, Whittaker won the single-largest lottery payout of $315 million with a cash option of more than $113 million on Christmas Day 2002.
But since then, he's had several run-ins the law. That includes being charged with DUI in Kanawha County in January 2004 after he was found sleeping in his vehicle along Interstate 64 in Nitro.
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.
In 2006, two Summers County women filed a federal civil suit accusing Whittaker of assault and battery, groping them, threatening to kill one of their friends and illegally firing a gun.
Also in 2006, three women filed a lawsuit accusing Whittaker of assault at Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center.
Two more 2006 lawsuits filed by Atlantic City casinos accused Whittaker of writing checks from a closed West Virginia bank account.
Again in 2006, more than two dozen companies owned by Whittaker filed a petition for injunction to keep his estranged wife from claiming any interest to land owned by them after she filed for divorce from him in 2005.
In 2007, Whittaker and City National sued each other after he alleged $49,000 was cleared out of an account. The case later was settled.
Later in 2007, Whittaker settled a wrongful death lawsuit after he and the estate of his granddaughter were sued by the estate of an 18-year-old man who died of drug overdose at Whittaker's Putnam County home in 2004.
In 2008, Whittaker LLC was sued for nearly $10,000 in unpaid natural gas utility service.
In late 2008, a couple sued Whittaker LLC, saying the woman was injured after one of the company's drivers collided with her vehicle.
The newly filed BrickStreet case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Philip Stowers.
Putnam Circuit Court case number: 09-C-417
