LJWorld.com / ID badge, lottery tickets returned to former Kansas Lottery employee

Archive for Thursday, December 20, 2001

The Associated Press

December 20, 2001

Topeka — A former Kansas Lottery employee who admitted stealing nearly $63,000 from the agency will get his lottery identification badge and other property back.

The property to be returned to Richard Lee Knowlton includes the badge, 43 lottery tickets and three computer disks. The items were seized after Knowlton's arrest last year.

Shawnee County District Judge Marla Luckert ruled Tuesday that the items would be returned to Knowlton because they weren't used as evidence in his criminal case. Luckert had a hearing Monday on the issue.

Last year, Knowlton was fined $25,000, sentenced to 55 days in jail and placed on three years' probation. He repaid the money he took from the lottery and paid the agency more than $15,000 in restitution.

Knowlton acknowledged tampering with tickets and manipulating computer files while working as the lottery's computer manager to steal the money between September 1998 and March 2000. He originally faced 268 charges and pleaded guilty to 80 felonies.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Stephen Maxwell, who prosecuted Knowlton, argued that Knowlton's probation prohibited his having the items. William Rork, Knowlton's attorney, argued the property should be returned and said Knowlton wanted them for their "sentimental value."

The property has been stored in District Judge Thomas Conklin's office. Conklin handled most of the proceedings in Knowlton's case, though Luckert sentenced Knowlton.

In November, Conklin agreed to release of the property, but Maxwell argued that Conklin wasn't aware of the probation conditions imposed on Knowlton.

In February, Luckert issued an order saying all lottery property seized as evidence after Knowlton's arrest could be returned to the lottery or destroyed.