LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky Powerball winner was arrested and charged with kicking a police officer in Florida days after he won a $167 million jackpot.
James S. Farthing, who goes by Shannon, found out Sunday that he won the state's biggest ever jackpot after his mother called him, according to a media release from the Kentucky Lottery. The lottery said Farthing and his mother were splitting the winnings.
But Farthing, 50, was in a Florida jail by midweek, according to media reports. He has been charged with battery of a police officer and resisting arrest after a Pinellas County Sheriff's deputy was attempting to break up a fight between Farthing and another person in a hotel when Farthing kicked the officer in the face, according to a police report written Tuesday. The officer told Farthing to turn around put his hands behind his back, but Farthing attempted to flee, the police report said.
Farthing was booked into jail early Wednesday morning and remained in custody Friday, according to the county's online jail records.
Farthing went to lottery headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday with his mother, Linda Grizzle, to claim their winnings.
''It's going to be a good Mother's Day,'' Grizzle told lottery officials. ''This is going to pay off my debt.'' Grizzle said she called her son Sunday saying she thought they had the winning ticket. They rushed to the gas station where he bought the ticket to confirm it, the lottery said.
''I would have never dreamed it. It hasn't sunken in yet,'' she said.
In an interview with WKYT-TV that Sunday, Farthing said the winnings would help his mother.
