Judge freezes bank funds

WARREN -- A Trumbull County judge has ordered that funds be frozen at a bank until a lawsuit is settled over who should get proceeds from a winning lottery ticket bought in Warren in October.
Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court froze the assets in the Bank One account of Michael and Theresa Salcone of Gretchen Drive, Howland.
The case is being referred for mediation before county Magistrate Anthony Cornicelli. He will hold a hearing at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 9.
Ten former breakfast buddies of Michael Salcone's sued the couple last month, saying they believe Salcone used money they gave him to play the Mega Millions Ohio Lottery game and bought a ticket at the Giant Eagle on Elm Road that was a $250,000 winner.
The 11 men had been getting together for breakfast almost daily for the past three years at the Elm Road McDonald's and had been playing the lottery game on Fridays since August, putting $5 each into a pool with Salcone buying the tickets.
According to the lawsuit, on Oct. 7, one of the tickets Salcone bought contained five of six winning numbers, yielding a prize of $250,000, but he didn't tell the group about it.
The group said Salcone denied having won the lottery until months after the drawing -- and then said the winning ticket belonged to his wife and was not one of the tickets he bought with the pool's money, according to the suit. It asks for a judgment of $350,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages and a finding that the Salcones not get any share of the winnings.