Lottery Mystery to Be Solved, Finally

By Stephen M. Silverman

04/30/2002 at 03:07 PM EDT

Angelito Marquez is off the hook. The nurse's aide from Union, N.J., has been fighting off accusations from 19 of his coworkers who claimed he collected their money for a lottery pool and now is trying to keep the $58.9 million booty for himself, The New York Times reported. But as it turns out, Marquez, is not the winner, The Times reports. Nor are any of the employees at the Newark facility where Marquez worked -- the same wishful employees who hired an attorney to help them get what they thought was their money out of Marquez. According to Carole Hedinger, acting director of the New Jersey lottery, the winner will be announced Tuesday, and it isn't Marquez, who all along had denied that he bought a winning ticket in the April 16 seven-state, $331 million Big Game jackpot drawing. (A Georgia woman claimed one of the prizes; another winner, in Illinois, has not yet gone public.) The only information about the winner, who bought the ticket at the 1-2-3 Food Mart in Hillside, N.J., is that it was a man in his 40s or 50s, storeowner Amit Ghetia told The Times. As for Marquez's coworkers, their attorney, Anthony H. Guerino, told the paper: "It's a bittersweet day. I could see (my clients) deflate, but there were no tears."