Winners of the $241 million Powerball prize at Iowa Lottery headquarters.
The names of the 20 Quaker Oats shipping department workers in Cedar Rapids who won the record $241-million Powerball prize are now public.
Eighteen members of the group chartered a bus and showed up at Iowa Lottery Headquarters in Des Moines for a news conference to collect their money, but told Iowa Lottery officials that they would file an injunction to keep their names private.
Iowa Lottery C.E.O. Terry Rich says the group was given 10 business days to file that injunction, but the deadline has passed without action.
“It’s our understanding that the Shipping 20 Trust has not filed a petition for an injunction, so we have released the list. Historically the Lottery has treated the names of all of its winners as public information, and we plan to do so here as well,” Rich says.
Rich says it was the first time that any jackpot winner said they would file an injunction, and it was not a confrontational process. “And I think the discussion was actually very good, the players and the lawyers were very professional in all of our dealings,” Rich says.
“The discussion helped clear out any doubt that when people play the lottery in Iowa, the names will continue to be released when the money is claimed. So basically we’ll take a picture for the paper and be on the radio and T.V. For a million bucks most people will obviously say yes, but now they know it is public.”
The winners did pose for pictures and a few gave their first names at the time they collected the jackpot, but said they did not want their full names public to prevent solicitors. Rich says their approach probably gave them more attention. “What played out in this situation seemed to generate more publicity than if the names would have been initially released,” according to Rich.
He says he would continue to advise winners to go to the announcement that they’ve won and enjoy 15 minutes of fame and then go on with their lives. “We often hear from past winners that that is the case. In fact I think most past winners would probably tells us that by next week most all of the press for those 20 folks in Cedar Rapids would probably be all done.” Rich says the tactic used by the group has generated discussion, but no great movement to change the law regarding the release of the names of jackpot winners.
Rich says there is always a debate of trying to protect the security of someone who has won with the desire to maintain openness in state government. He says they are happy to discuss the issue with legislators, “but the bottom line is as a an appointed official, a state official, we abide by the law and the law says we should release the names.”
The names and cities of residence of the 18 men and two women who are members of The Shipping 20 are: Tommy Campbell Sr., William Carnahan, Mike Hughes, Denise Hunt, Terry Koopman, David Morgan, Charles Shedek, Gregory Stearns and Rodney Tierney all from Cedar Rapids. Timothy Himmelsbach and Kelly Mulford from Marion. Daniel Cantonwine of Vinton; Kenneth Cole of Fairfax; Robert Havlik of Toddville; Carol Kremer of Central City; Allen Miller of Shellsburg; Larry Nielsen of Walker; Brent Novak of Shellsburg;Jason Rauch of Ryan; John Wharton of Keystone.
Each member of the group took home approximately $5.6-million after taxes.