From bankruptcy to big lottery jackpot

'My immediate plan is to pay some bills'

Jorge and Joanne Lopes claimed a $58.9 million share of the Big Game lottery jackpot Tuesday.

TRENTON, New Jersey (CNN) -- A New Jersey couple who filed for bankruptcy last May are nearly $59 million richer -- make that $43 million after federal taxes -- after claiming their share of the multi-state Big Game lottery.

New Jersey lottery officials presented Jorge and Joanne Lopes with their ceremonial check Tuesday morning.

One day earlier the officials dashed the hopes for a pool of Newark nursing home workers who thought they had won the prize. Co-workers of the man who had bought lottery tickets for the group became suspicious when he did not show up for work in the days following the drawing, so they hired an attorney.

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Carole Hedinger, acting executive director of the New Jersey Lottery, said on the same day the Lopeses made their claim, lottery officials also got a letter from the group in Newark claiming it had the winning ticket. Lottery officials announced Monday the nursing home group had not won the lottery.

Speaking about the winning ticket dispute at Tuesday's press conference, Lopes said he told his wife to "let things take their course because the truth will come out." Lopes added he knew he had "absolutely no connection" with the group claiming the prize.

There was one connection, however -- the Lopes's winning ticket was purchased at the same Hillside, New Jersey, gas station as the tickets bought by the nursing home workers' pool.

Jorge Lopes said when he went to the convenience store the day after the drawing, he couldn't believe it when the clerk told him he was a winner. "I started shaking like I'm shaking now."

He said, "my immediate plan (for the money) is to pay some bills."

Lopes works two jobs managing restaurants. His wife, Joanne, has been working in a daycare center and making deliveries for a florist.

The Lopeses had filed for bankruptcy nearly one year ago, on May 18, 2001. Court documents from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton indicate the couple owed about $600,000 to creditors. Their case was dismissed in October after the Lopeses failed to appear at a hearing to establish a payment plan, according to court documents.

The Lopeses prize is the largest individual lottery payment in New Jersey history.

In all, three winning tickets were sold for the April 16 drawing, worth a total $331 million. A 20-year-old Georgia woman has already claimed her third of the prize. The holder of a winning ticket sold in Illinois has not yet come forward.

As for all the bickering among the Newark nursing home workers, the man who purchased what his co-workers thought was the winning ticket is ready to get on with his life.

"I feel so relieved about it that it's already over," said Angelito Marquez, "and for all of those who didn't believe in me, I've already forgiven you. and for all of those who supported me, thank you for that."

The members of the lottery pool get to split a smaller prize -- $2.

-- CNN Producer Rose Arce contributed to this report.