Dippolito jury finally selected

Murder-for-hire retrial set to begin without venue change

Dalia Dippolito’s retrial on a 2009 murder-for-hire charge will finally begin Wednesday, after four grueling days of jury selection and defense claims the pool was tainted by extensive coverage of the case.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley on Tuesday repeatedly denied requests by Dippolito’s legal team to get rid of all the prospective jurors and move the case out of the area, away from intense publicity.

“It is not necessary at this time to transfer the case out of Palm Beach County,” Kelley said, adding just because prospective jurors have knowledge of a case doesn’t mean they are unable to be impartial.

The defense insisted most of the nearly 200 prospective jurors were biased and because of news reports and TV programs they either believe Dippolito is guilty, or were angling to serve on the panel because the case is high profile.

After her 2011 conviction

and 20-year prison sentence were overturned on appeal, Dippolito, 34, will again face charges she hired a Boynton Beach police officer, posing as a hit man, to kill her husband of six months.

“People are trying to get on this jury,,” attorney Greg Rosenfeld said.

He called the jury selection process “terrifying” for his client because the majority of the prospective jurors had heard about the case and know it is a second trial. “The risk is too great … her liberty is on the line here.”

But the judge said he still believed there were enough potential jurors who were impartial and could ensure Dippolito’s right to a fair trial. About 55 prospective jurors had made it to the final round Tuesday; ultimately six were chosen for the panel plus two alternates.

There are five women and three men on the jury. Judge Kelley denied a defense motion to sequester the jury until the trial ends; he ordered the jurors to avoid media coverage.

“We’re going to have to trust that these jurors will hear this evidence with an open mind,” defense attorney Brian Claypool said. “That’s all we’re asking.”

Prosecutor Craig Williams said the defense’s tainted juror claims were overblown and all prospective jurors with bias were sent away.

Since jury selection began last Thursday, dozens of potential jurors said they had heard about the history of the case or seen footage of Boynton Beach police officers approaching Dippolito at a police-staged fake-murder scene.

Most were immediately excused from jury service. Other prospective jurors were released over hardships, such as medical issues or caring for small children.

One prospective juror reported information about the case had “started to circulate a bit” in the hallway outside the courtroom at one point on the first day of jury selection. After hearing that, the defense said the pool was spoiled and couldn’t be trusted.

After the judge on Tuesday again denied the defense’s change-of-venue request, Claypool criticized Kelley with the prospective jurors out of the courtroom.

“I think the court’s ignoring [the problem] because there’s a rush to get a jury seated in Palm Beach County,” Claypool said. “That’s what troubles me.”

The judge then advised Claypool, a California-based legal analyst who often appears on national television news programs, to “lower” the tone of his arguments.

Dippolito’s lawyers urged Kelley to at least follow the example set in 2014 by the second DUI manslaughter trial of Wellington polo club founder John Goodman. Then, a jury panel was selected in Tampa and brought to Palm Beach County for the three-week trial.

But Judge Kelley said it’s entirely possible to keep high-profile trials in the same county where the crimes allegedly occurred.

An issue with jury selection from Dippolito’s first trial led to her retrial.

A state appellate court ruled Dippolito did not receive a fair trial because prospective jurors — including those later picked for the panel — had heard an allegation that she once tried to poison then spouse Michael Dippolito.

For that reason, Judge Kelley, who did not preside over the first trial, questioned each juror separately about their knowledge.

Now the attention turns to Wednesday’s start of the second trial, which is expected to run five or six days. Dippolito, who has been on house arrest for five-and-ahalf years, is charged with solicitation to commit firstdegree murder with a firearm.

Since March, the judge has repeatedly denied the defense requests to have the charge thrown out over claims that Dippolito was the victim of police entrapment.

For the trial, her lawyers are planning to argue Boynton Beach Police violated Dippolito’s constitutional rights by setting her up with the help of her former lover Mohamed Shihadeh, who became a confidential informant for police in the summer of 2009.

“Ms. Dippolito’s been waiting for years to have this full story heard,” Claypool said after the jury was picked Tuesday. “Trust me, the state prosecutor is going to be in for a battle in this case. This is by far a slam dunk for the prosecution.”

The defense argues police craved a chance to “bring the department publicity and glory” by inviting filming of the Dippolito investigation by the TV show “Cops” and posting the fake crime-scene video on YouTube.

Claypool said the police used Dippolito “as a pawn to manufacture good television.”

“There’s going to be plenty of evidence in this case about the department not following proper police procedures in dealing with this undercover investigation,” he said.

But prosecutors Williams and Laura Laurie say Dippolito not only intended for her husband to die, she had earlier attempted to seek out a hit man, and have her spouse arrested for drug dealing, among other alleged “prior bad acts.”

They intend to have the jury listen to audio recordings of Dippolito, including a remark to the undercover cop that she was “positive, like 5,000 percent sure” she wanted to go through with the killing.

But Dippolito has said she was just acting and following a “script” for reality TV show ambitions. Her lawyers say they have not decided if she will testify.