WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Dalia Dippolito offered an undercover police officer $7,000 to kill her then-husband, a proposal seen by millions thanks to the television show “Cops,” YouTube and other internet sites.
Dippolito says she was just acting, that she didn’t really want her husband dead. She claims police entrapped her because they wanted to impress “Cops” producers and give them an unforgettable case that would gain national attention. And if she is to avoid a possible 20-year prison sentence, her lawyers will have to get a jury to believe that story.
Dippolito’s second trial is scheduled to begin Thursday as she faces charges she tried to hire a hit man to kill her newlywed husband, convicted conman Michael Dippolito, in 2009. Prosecutors allege she wanted his $250,000 in savings and their $225,000 townhouse. If convicted of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, she could be sentenced up to 20 years. A 2011 conviction and 20-year sentence were thrown out on appeal because of a judge’s error.
Brian Claypool, her new attorney, said he will put the Boynton Beach police investigation on trial. If the investigation wasn’t rigged to benefit “Cops,” which had a film crew working with the department, why did the former police chief tell staff he was looking forward to throwing a party where they could watch the episode with her arrest together? Why are there recordings of only a few of the hundreds of phone calls between Dippolito and police informant Mohamed Shihadeh, her former lover?
Claypool believes more recordings exist but were destroyed because they would have shown Dippolito had no intention of killing her husband. He says she only moved forward with the plot because Shihadeh threatened to kill her and her family, threats he made because detectives were threatening him with arrest.