Prosecutor in Dalia Dippolito case blasts misconduct claim
Palm Beach County prosecutors this week blasted Dalia Dippolito’s recent claims that her 2009 murder-for-hire case should be thrownout because of police misconduct.
In a sharp rebuttal to the Boynton Beach woman’s allegations, the State Attorney’s Office told Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley it “respectfully disagrees” with each claimmadeby Dippolito’s attorneys in aNovember pleading.
“The police did nothing more than help create an opportunity for the defendant to be caught before the victim was actually murdered,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Ellis wrote in aMonday court filing.
Dippolito, 32, is due to stand trial for a second time in May, unless the judge dismisses the charge of solicitation to commit first-degree murder with a firearm.
It’s coming up on two years since a state appeals court tossed her 2011 conviction and 20-year prison sentence, concluding the pool of prospective jurors had been tainted.
Dippolito remains on house arrest, accused of paying a Boynton Beach undercover cop, posing as a hit man, $3,000 to kill Michael Dippolito, her spouse of six months.
Avideo of police officersapproachingDalia Dippolito at a staged murder scenewent viral on YouTube, and Dippolito’s arrest became international news.
Nowrepresented by two nationally known attorneys and a local defense lawyer, Dippolito’s case is once again in the spotlight.
InDecembershe appeared for an exclusive interview on ABC’s “20/20” news program, and she is scheduled to testify in court Feb. 23 concerning
The defense team has said new evidence confirms she was a victim of entrapment. Specifically, the lawyers argue Boynton Beach police violated her rights afterMohamed Shihadeh, Dippolito’s former lover, reported her alleged interest in hiring a hit man to kill her then-newlywed husband.
Shihadeh, enlisted as a confidential police informant, testified last month he was pressured to set up Dippolito for arrest or face prosecution.
“It went overboard a little bit,” he said, explaining he had more than 400 phone conversations with Dippolito about the alleged hit, some of which he knew had been recorded.
Dippolito’s lawyers, Mark Eiglarsh of Miami, and Brian Claypool of Pasadena, Calif., accused the Police Department of ignoring internal procedures for dealing with informants.
The defense said the police simply saw in Dippolitoanopportunity to“bring the department publicity and glory” by inviting filming of the staged scene by theTVshow“Cops.”
“The final and fair result is to dismiss these charges in order to hold [Boynton Beach police] accountable for its conduct in committing flagrant constitutional violations and to restoreDippolito’slifetoher,” theywrote.“She will never get a fair trial due to [the Police Department’s] nefarious conduct.”
Boynton Beach police do not comment on pending litigation, according to spokeswoman Stephanie Slater. However, for the “20/20” show, the department said itwas confident in “theabilityofourstateattorneytosuccessfully
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dismissed. prosecuteMs. Dippolito a second time.”
Prosecutor Ellis cited two Florida court cases, with similar circumstances, to argue police did nothing wrong or illegal concerning Dippolito.
One of the cases involved efforts by police to work with an online watchdog group and the NBC television program “To Catch a Predator.”
In 2010, a state appellate court rejected a defendant’s claim that his rights had been violated and his case should be dismissed. The court ruled the watchdog group and the cops “created nothingmore than an opportunity for[themancharged] to commit a crime.”
The other case cited by Dippolito’s prosecutor concerned a Jan. 6 appellate court opinion concerning an Indian River County school police officer who pretended to be a 15-year-old girl. There was nothing wrong with the tactic used by police that resulted in the arrest of a 19-year-old man on a charge of traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sexual activity, the court found.
Boynton Beach police didn’t violateDippolito’s rights— shemadethe choice of trying to have her spouse killed, Ellis wrote.
At the first trial, the jury rejected Dippolito’s then-core defense that she thought she was acting in a reality television show and never intended to have her husband eliminated. Today, she continues to stand by that story.
“Now with the attorneys that I have, so muchis coming to light towhere itwould just be insane to not believe me,” Dippolito told “20/20.”
mjfreeman@tribpub.com, 561-243-6642