Lottery Winner Facing Drug Charges Asks for Court-Appointed Lawyer

No one can accuse Jose Caballero of lacking gumption.

Caballero, 32, an accused heroin trafficker who grabbed headlines in 1985 by winning $2 million in the California Lottery, asked a Los Angeles judge on Wednesday to appoint him a lawyer at taxpayers’ expense.

Coming from a millionaire, the unexpected request stunned onlookers, including Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan, who rejected it.

“You make more than ($70,000) a year after taxes and you want me to give you an attorney,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey McGrath quoted the judge as saying. “You can kiss my foot.”

Caballero was arrested last December after allegedly trying to sell heroin to an undercover police officer at a West Los Angeles restaurant. He faces trial on three counts of conspiring to sell, transport or possess a controlled substance, prosecutors said.

By virtue of his winning the Big Spin, which assures him of $70,000 a year after taxes for 20 years, Caballero had no trouble posting $30,000 bail, prosecutors said.

In a preliminary hearing last year, he pleaded not guilty.

Caballero was working as a deliveryman for a San Jose furniture company in 1985 when his lucky spin at a Hollywood television studio made him an instant millionaire. But his audience included immigration officials, who arrested him the next day as an illegal immigrant.

His lottery win, coupled with his arrest, garnered international attention. A Chihuahua, Mexico, newspaper, bannered the story, “‘Mojado’ y Millionario”-- “ ‘Wetback’ and a Millionaire.”

McGrath, the prosecutor, said he was “as surprised as anyone” when Caballero requested the court-appointed attorney.

McGrath said the judge noticed that an attorney who had represented Caballero in several previous appearances was not present and asked who was representing him. When a court-appointed attorney answered, “ ‘I am, your honor,’ I spoke up and said, ‘Your honor, I believe we have a problem here. . . . This man won $2 million in the lottery,’ ” McGrath said.