Disqualified Track Winner Gets $500,000 From Jury

A jury has awarded $500,000 to an unemployed Carlsbad man who won a million-dollar jackpot at Hollywood Park five years ago, only to be disqualified.

The jury agreed last week with a lawyer for Rudolfo Sahagun that Hollywood Park officials had made a fool of Sahagun when they disqualified him after earlier bringing him and his family to the racetrack winner’s circle in front of 45,000 race fans and presenting them a with a ceremonial check. The money was to have been paid out over 20 years.

The lawyer, David Glickman, acknowledged that Sahagun had broken the contest rules by submitting more than one entry. Glickman said Sahagun did so because he saw others picking extra entry forms up off the floor and entering them, and because he did not read the rules on the form.