Jury sees staged crime scene video in murder-for-hire case

It’s the video that went viral and turned Dalia Dippolito’s murder-for-hire case from South Florida into an international media sensation nearly eight years ago.

But Tuesday, the clip of a police-staged crime scene was watched for the first time by the jury in the Boynton Beach woman’s third trial. She’s accused of hiring an undercover cop posing as a hit man to kill her husband.

Some of the jurors appeared to quickly glance over at Dippolito, 34, when the dramatic footage was projected on a courtroom screen, during the cross-examination of former Sgt. Frank Ranzie.

“Listen, we had a report of a disturbance at your house, and there were shots fired,” Ranzie told Dippolito when she arrives outside her townhome. “Is your husband Michael?”

“OK, I’m sorry to tell you, ma’am, he’s been killed,” Ranzie continued, placing his hands on her shoulders while she shrieks on the morning of Aug. 5, 2009.

Last week, the Palm Beach County jury saw another video of Dippolito in a police station interrogation room the same day when another officer told her that her spouse was alive and her discussions with the undercover officer/fake hit man had been recorded.

Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday, after calling three witnesses, Michael Dippolito, lead detective Alex Moreno, and undercover cop Widy Jean.

Now a self-employed private investigator, Ranzie was called to testify as a witness for the defense to support claims of police department misconduct in the Dippolito case.

As in the two previous trials, Ranzie said the staged crime scene video should never have been posted on YouTube while the Dippolito investigation was still open.

And he also blasted the decision by other supervisors to partner with the “Cops” reality TV program for an episode on Dippolito.

“I didn’t want (the show’s) cameras present,” Ranzie told defense attorney Greg Rosenfeld, adding he was directed at one point to pretend to be working at his desk for extra footage at the police station.

While he was questioned by prosecutor Laura Laurie, Ranzie defended his opinions: “I’m not here for any reason other than the truth.”

But when he then blurted out a reference to his testimony at Dippolito’s first trial, Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley briefly halted the proceedings to huddle with the attorneys. The jury is not supposed to know about the previous trials, to prevent any prejudice toward Dippolito.

Ranzie’s testimony continued without any mention of the slip-up, and he went on to tell the jury he didn’t see any tears from Dippolito’s eyes outside the pretend murder scene.

Dippolito was convicted at her initial trial in 2011 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But three years later an appeals court ordered a new trial on the charge of solicitation to commit firstdegree murder with a firearm.

The second trial was held in December and ended in a mistrial. The jurors were deadlocked 3 to 3, a result partially attributed to the defense’s blame-the-cops strategy at a time when public scrutiny of officers has been heightened across the country.

Since the latest trial began last Thursday, the defense has reprised its criticism of Boynton Beach police as having “manufactured this alleged crime.”

But prosecutors added more evidence left out of the last trial, including allegations that Dippolito first plotted to destroy her husband by getting him arrested on a parole violation.

The jury also has been shown other videos and recordings of Dippolito speaking both with an ex-lover who served as a police informant, and the undercover cop.

“I'm positive, like 5,000 percent sure I want it done,” Dippolito is heard telling the fake hit man in one recording.

Also Tuesday, the defense called Boynton Beach Police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater to question her decision to post the staged crime scene video YouTube before the case was closed.

Defense attorney Brian Claypool asked Slater if she was proud that it has been viewed nearly a half million times on the department’s YouTube page.

“I wouldn’t say proud, no,” she said.

When the trial resumes Wednesday, Slater will be back on the witness stand for questioning by the prosecutors.

Dippolito’s lawyers said their next witness is Mohamed Shihadeh, who was secretly working as police confidential informant on the recordings with Dippolito.