Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dippolito jury hears police recordings
Woman on trial again in murder-for-hire plot
At the start of Dalia Dippolito’s second trial on a murder-for-hire charge Wednesday, prosecutor Craig Williams asked the jurors to “pay really close attention to what she says.”
And for the rest of the day, the Palm Beach County jury heard recordings of a few of Dippolito’s August 2009 talks with her former lover, who was secretly working as a Boynton Beach police confidential informant.
“Nobody is going to point a finger at me,” Dalia Dippolito told her ex-boyfriend, Mohamed Shihadeh, in their supposed discussions about hiring a hit man to kill her newlywed husband, Michael Dippolito.
The prosecutors today plan to have the jurors watch a recording of Dalia Dippolito speaking with undercover cop Widy Jean, who posed as the would-be contract killer.
She told Jean of her desire to see the alleged murderous plan all the way through. “I’m positive, like 5,000 percent sure,” she said.
But defense attorney Brian Claypool, during his opening statement Wednesday, told the jury the crime was completely
manufactured by a corrupt police department, which set up Dippolito to achieve “fame and notoriety” through a partnership with the “Cops” TV program.
“This is a case about a rogue police department,” Claypool said, contending the cops threatened Shihadeh into participating in a hasty investigation of Dippolito, now 34. “That’s an absolute, categorical abuse of power.”
The start of the retrial followed four days of jury selection, which featured Dippolito’s attorneys repeatedly insisting she will not get a fair trial because the pool of nearly 200 prospective jurors was contaminated by extensive publicity of the case over the years.
After the trial’s first day concluded, Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley once again denied a defense motion to transfer the trial out of Palm Beach County, ruling the selected six jurors and two alternates can be fair and impartial.
“My feelings about it haven’t changed,” said the judge, who also refused a request to sequester the panel for the expected fiveor six-day trial.
Kelley said he will continue to instruct the jurors each day to avoid media coverage, both local and national. The defense expressed concerns that the jury will be exposed to reporting and headlines that draw attention to the fact that Dippolito already had a trial in 2011 on the same charge of solicitation to commit firstdegree murder with a firearm.
Dippolito was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But in 2014, a state appellate court ruled Dippolito did not get a fair trial because the jury pool was tainted by hearing an allegation she once tried to poison her husband.
Just hours into the start of the retrial Wednesday, and with the jury out of the room, defense attorneys Claypool and Greg Rosenfeld made two requests for a mistrial.
They argued Williams made “inappropriate comments” in his opening statement and also accused the prosecutor of showing the jury an undercover video with captions, which are not official evidence.
Kelley denied the motions, and later issued warnings to both sides after sniping between the lawyers. “Stop bickering, act professionally, or there will be sanctions,” the judge said with the jurors out of the courtroom at one point.
After the jury was sent home for the day, Williams accused Claypool of a “knowing misrepresentation” when Claypool told the jury that police failed to record more than 550 phone calls between Dippolito and Shihadeh over a period of five days.
Williams said the jury must be told about this “absolute untruth” because there are only 26 calls.
Claypool called it an “honest mistake” that was not made in bad faith. Later in the trial, phone records will be admitted into evidence to clear up the discrepancy.
On the recordings, played for the jury over the defense’s objection, Dippolito discussed her desire to end the life of the man she married six months earlier, and handed over $1,200 that was the alleged down payment for the job.
Dippolito also gave Shihadeh a few photos of Michael Dippolito during their Aug. 1 meeting inside a car at a gas station parking lot. The photos allegedly were supposed to be given to the hit man.
As the jury watched a video of the encounter, Boynton Beach Police Lead Detective Alex Moreno testified that he counted the cash from Dippolito back at the police station.
On a recording of a phone call, Dippolito is heard balking when Shihadeh says the hit man needs $3,000 up front and a key to the Dippolitos’ townhouse. She expressed concern about the place getting robbed and said she doesn’t have the money.
“He’s not going to do it without money down,” Shihadeh said.
Dippolito, who has been on house arrest since the end of the 2011 trial, has previously said she was just acting and following a “script” for reality TV show ambitions.
But Claypool told the jury it was the Boynton Beach Police Department that was following its own script — building a case against Dippolito in order to impress producers with the “Cops” show.
“The Boynton Beach Police Department saw a great opportunity to get on TV,” Claypool said, adding that the police “trashed” Dippolito’s constitutional rights and that she never truly intended a hit on her spouse.
During his cross-examination of Detective Moreno, Claypool questioned whether it was appropriate for police to hire Shihadeh as a confidential informant in light of his previous sexual relationship with Dippolito.
“If somebody’s life depends on it,” Moreno answered. The detective made the arrangement after Shihadeh called police over concerns about Dippolito.
One of the more notable pieces of evidence from Dippolito’s first trial will not be used in court this time, at the request of the defense.
That is a video of police officers approaching Dippolito at a staged murder scene. The police department posted the video on YouTube, where it has close to 500,000 views.