Published: August 29, 2007 11:17 pm      

Felony charge against Edwards dropped

Powerball winner’s wife clear after paying of child support arrearage

CATLETTSBURG — A judge on Wednesday dismissed a felony charge against the wife of Powerball jackpot winner David Edwards.

Boyd Circuit Judge Marc I. Rosen granted a request by County Attorney Phillip Hedrick to drop a criminal non-support charge against 32-year-old Shawna Edwards.

Hedrick told the judge Edwards had paid off her child support arrearage — about $17,000 — and was current on her monthly payments. Those were the conditions Edwards needed to satisfy in order to have the charge dropped, he said.

Hedrick requested the charge be dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled if Edwards falls behind on her payments again.

Hedrick said earlier that Edwards was attempting to obtain a home-equity loan on a house in Ashland she bought for her mother to pay off her back child support.

Rosen ordered Edwards, who was represented at the hearing by public defender Andrew Bowker, to meet with a child support case worker.

Edwards, of the 3400 block of Elton Avenue, was dressed in an off-white outfit trimmed in light green at Wednesday’s court hearing and had what appeared to be a large gash on her chin. She appeared to nod off at one point while sitting in the gallery waiting for her case to be called.

Edwards was signed a voluntary waiver of extradition in Florida and was returned to Boyd County to face a criminal charge stemming from her alleged failure to make support payments for two children she had prior to her marriage to David Edwards. She was released from custody, but a warrant was issued for her arrest after she missed two consecutive court appearances.

Ashland police arrested Edwards in June, and she spent nearly a month in the county lockup. Part of that time was a 10-day sentence she received after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of giving a police officer a false name.

Less than a week after being released from jail, Edwards was back in custody. A warrant was issued for her arrest after she flunked a drug test and then failed to show up at the courthouse for a follow-up test. Boyd County sheriff’s deputies located her in her husband’s room in King’s Daughters Medical Center.

Edwards was known as Shawna Maddux when David Edwards, her then-fiance, won a one-third share of what at the time was the largest Powerball jackpot in history in August 2001. David Edwards elected to take his winnings in the form of a lump-sum payment of $27 million after taxes.

The couple married in Maui shortly after David Edwards won the money and subsequently moved into a $1.2 million home in a gated community in Palm Beach, Fla.

The Edwardses have been in the headlines for a variety of reasons over the past six years, including drug arrests, a child-welfare investigation and domestic squabbles. By all accounts, their Powerball fortune is nothing but a memory.

After losing their Florida home for failing to pay back dues to the local homeowners’ association, the couple wound up living in a storage unit where many of their exotic possessions were stored. Those items recently were sold at auction to pay off the bill for the unit.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.