Spin of Legal Wheels Dulls Lottery Winner’s $3.4-Million Outlook

Doris Barnett’s little ball bounced out of the slot again Wednesday when her lawyer was notified that California Lottery officials intend to seek a new trial in an effort to overturn a jury verdict awarding her $3.4 million.

“I don’t know how they can put me through all this,” said a weeping Barnett, 54, the Los Angeles woman who went from $3 million winner to $10,000 placer when the ball would not stay put for five seconds in the Big Spin on Dec. 30, 1985.

Barnett said her attorney, Lawrence Sperber, had warned her that the lottery people might appeal and that when he called her Wednesday morning, “I felt something was wrong.”

After he gave her the bad news, she said, “I sat there for a while, then I just started to cry.”

A spokeswoman for the Lottery Commission, however, said the notice was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court “in order to keep our options open” and did not necessarily mean the matter will be pursued.

“We had 15 days to file this,” said Joanne McNabb. “No decision has yet been made.”

Told that Barnett was upset by the move, McNabb said, “It is a very unpleasant situation.”

A Superior Court jury decided on April 4 that Barnett should receive the $3 million plus $400,000 in damages for emotional trauma, although the ball on the Big Spin wheel did not stay in the grand prize slot for the required five seconds, settling instead in a $10,000 niche.

After first announcing that she had won the big money, Geoff Edwards, master of ceremonies of the televised Big Spin show, unhappily told her it was a mistake.

When the state sent her a check for $10,000, Barnett refused to cash it and filed suit.

Jurors at her trial agreed with her lawyers, Sperber and David B. Shapiro, that lottery officials rarely awaited the timer’s ruling before announcing a winner.

Sperber said he was surprised by the notice to ask for another trial, because “there was so much public support” for his client.

“I was shocked they would do this to her again,” he said. “Like they have no feeling for her as a human being. She’s tremendously upset.”