MOUNT DORA, Fla. -- A man convicted of attempted sexual battery against a child is Florida's newest millionaire.
For 12 years, Timothy Poole's mugshot has appeared on Florida's sex offender registry, but now the state has taken a new photo of Poole -- one in which he is holding a $3 million check. Poole won the money off a scratch lottery ticket.
Poole's friend Floyd Snyder said he was happy for Poole and never believed the allegations he molested a child.
"The years I've known him, I've seen no inclination of anything like that," Snyder said.
Deputies arrested Poole in 1999 after a family friend claimed Poole had molested a boy. According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the child said "Tim would sleep in the same bed as him" and "sometimes Tim would wake him up from sleeping to perform a sex act."
While Poole denied the allegations, he later pleaded guilty to attempted sexual battery and spent nearly three years in prison.
"He's a very positive person," Snyder said. "Very kind. Giving. I think that's why he won. Because it's Christmas time and the dude deserves a break, man."
