Former husband: ‘All she had to do was divorce me’
Mi c h a e l D i p p o l i t o s a i d Wednesday he doesn’t have any i l l feel i ngs toward hi s e x - w i f e , D a l i a D i p p o l i t o even though police say she attempted to hire someone to kill him only six months after the two were married in 2009.
He said he’s tried to move on. But after going through the court hearings and media circus for nearly eight years now, it’s hard “having to do it every other year.”
“I’ve never had a nasty attitude toward it. I’m more disappointed that somebody would be that stupid to do what they did,” he said of his ex-wife in remarks to the media. “In reality, all she had to do was divorce me. What was I going to do? Cry?”
Now, after a Palm Beach County judge ruled a mistrial in the second trial of Dalia Dippolito, he will continue to be caught up in the infamous tale that has drawn international attention.
Mi c h a e l Di pp o l i t o a n d his attorneys spoke in Palm Beach Gardens hours after a six-member jury failed to reach a verdict. Though he spent nearly two days on the stand during the first case in 2011, he wasn’t even on the witness list this time. He said he isn’t sure whether that helped or hurt the case.
“They didn’t even t alk about me through this trial. Which is fine, but I don’t know if these jurors realized they were talking about a person she was trying to kill. That’s the reality,” he said.
Former prosecutor Elizabeth Parker said, “The state definitely lost today. It’s hard to see this happen.” Parker won the first trial in 2011 when Dalia Dippolito was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Michael Dippolito noted that there was extensive evidence that didn’t come up in the trial this time. “I just feel there are quite a few incidents and they’re all documented. The girl tried to get me put in jail by putting drugs on me, the girl stole money from me, she poisoned me with antifreeze. She hired the Buck Wild gang to kill me and they stole her money,” he said. “She did a lot of things that did not come up this time.”
During closings this week, Dalia Dippolito’s attorneys urged jurors to return the 34-year-old woman to her i n f a n t s o n . B e f o re B oy n - ton Beach police say Dalia Di ppoli t o pl a nned t o k i l l her husband, she lied and told him she was pregnant. Asked about finding out his ex-wife had recently become a mother, he said “it’s mildly humorous to me.”
“I wish her all the luck in the world,” he said.
Dippolito said he believes his ex-wife belongs in jail. State Attorney Dave Aronberg released a statement Wednesday stating the office “will retry this case at the earliest opportunity.”
“Listen, let’s be honest. If this had gone the other way, it would have been great that I didn’t show my face,” Michael Dippolito said. “But, obviously, it didn’t go that way. Looking at it, maybe if you put a face to it, challenge me on the stand. I’m not lying. I didn’t do anything. I was pretty much the dummy that was almost killed.”