For the second time this year, the Boynton Beach woman accused of a murder-for-hire plot to kill her former husband has had her motion to ease house arrest restrictions denied.
Judge Glenn Kelley refused to grant Dalia Dippolito's petition to allow her to travel within Palm Beach County between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. as she awaits her third trial stemming from her 2009 arrest on charges she tried to get, what turned out to be an undercover police officer, to murder her now ex-husband.
Dippolito's attorneys argued that her house arrest makes it difficult for her to participate in activities with her infant son, born last March and first confirmed by her legal team during closing arguments of her second trial, which ended with a hung jury.
Prosecutors scaled back their case and evidence in the retrial, declining to revisit some of their earlier evidence or call some witnesses back to the stand, including Dippolito's former husband and the target of the alleged crime, Michael.
Her former lover, Mohamed Shihadeh, who was a major subject in the original trial, was all kept off the witness stand the second time around. Eventually, the six jurors declared they were deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial last December.
In the original 2011 trial, Dippolito was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. An appellate court later reversed the verdict and vacated her sentence, saying the judge was wrong in denying the defense request to question jurors individually about what information they may have known about the case.
There was a lot of publicity surrounding the trial since Boynton Beach Police posted a clip of Dippolito's reaction to a staged crime scene online and other material involving the jilted wife was filmed for the television show "Cops."
The third trial is scheduled to begin on June 2nd. Prosecutors had been seeking a change of venue but dropped the motion last month. State attorneys did not try to block Dippolito's request to attend her brother's upcoming wedding, which Judge Kelley granted, provided specifics can be worked out.
(Photo credit: NBC Miami)