CLARK COUNTY, Wis. (WEAU) – A Neilsville woman charged with altering or forging lottery tickets entered a plea Monday.
Hope Johnson, 26, pleaded guilty to one charge of altering or forging a lottery ticket. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and two years of probation. Should she violate the terms of her probation, she will have to serve 80 more days in jail.
As part of her plea agreement, five other charges were dismissed but considered during her sentencing.
According to the criminal complaint, a BP gas station reported a $9,000 shortage for the month of August. Johnson was an employee at the store and had been working when the lottery shortages occurred.
After reviewing store footage, loss prevention stated the video shows Johnson standing at the lottery terminal and printing several Fastplay tickets, checking them, and then not purchasing them.
After Johnson scanned the tickets at the store, she would take the winning ones to the Express Mart across the street.
The store manager said when she was doing lottery reconciliation for August 25, around $900 worth of pay slips were missing. When a customer redeems a winning lottery ticket, a pay slip is generated at the lottery terminal. This has to be attached to the ticket that was redeemed and use it to confirm their pay-outs.
A total of 881 lottery tickets were illegally obtained, totaling $8,810. The total winning amount was $2,840.
In September, officers contacted Johnson, advising her of the next steps. They referred several criminal charges to the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.
Johnson is scheduled for a probation review hearing in October.
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