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A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 22 July 2017
Ex-escort gets 16 years for trying to have husband killed

drawn-out case that drew Neither Dippolito nor her
notice for its startling videos family showed any reac-
and salacious characters. tion when the sentence
Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley was handed down.
imposed the sentence on A 2011 conviction and 20-
Dalia Dippolito, who was year sentence had been
convicted last month of thrown out on appeal. A
solicitation of first-degree retrial last fall ended with
murder. She was recorded a 3-3 hung jury. This time,
on video and audio in 2009 it took the six-member jury
as she plotted to have Mi- 90 minutes to convict Dip-
chael Dippolito killed, tell- polito, 34, who had a child
ing an undercover detec- last year while under house
tive she was “5,000 percent arrest. Prosecutors believe
sure” she wanted her hus- she wanted control of the
band dead. couple’s town house and
Kelley said Dippolito acted her husband’s savings.
in a “cold and calculated The case gained national
manner.” attention when Boynton
“This particular crime was Beach police video from
committed not in an un- the investigation went vi-
sophisticated way, but in ral on the internet and was
a sophisticated way in a featured on the TV shows
calculated fashion,” Kelley “Cops” and “20/20.”
said. “There was a plan put Boynton Beach’s coopera-
in place by Dalia Dippolito tion with “Cops” had been
In this June 16, 2017 photo, Dalia Dippolito listens to attorneys during her third attempted murder to kill Mike Dippolito.” He a key part of the defense,
trial in West Palm Beach, Fla. Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley has sentenced Friday the former escort to
16 years in prison for trying to hire a hit man to kill her newlywed husband. said the evidence showed as Dippolito’s attorneys ar-
(Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post via AP, Pool) that Dalia Dippolito may gued detectives manipu-
have been manipulating lated her and their investi-
By TERRY SPENCER — A former Florida escort lywed husband was sen- two other men in her effort gation to play to the cam-
Associated Press convicted of trying to hire a tenced Friday to 16 years to kill her husband. eras. q
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) hit man to murder her new- in prison, perhaps ending a
Experts: No duty for laughing

teens to assist drowning man

By CURT ANDERSON criticisms of that rule, but
AP Legal Affairs Writer that’s generally the rule.”
MIAMI (AP) — It may be The case in central Florida’s
reprehensible and morally Brevard County involves
outrageous, but legal ex- the July 9 drowning of
perts say a group of Florida Jamel Dunn, 31, in a reten-
teens had no obligation tion pond. Police in the city
to rescue a drowning dis- of Cocoa discovered later
abled man they instead that five teenagers, ages
mocked, laughed at and 14 to 16, had made a video
recorded on a video that of the drowning, which was
was later posted online. published Friday by Florida
Still, authorities are pursu- Today . The teens can be
ing possible misdemeanor heard laughing at Dunn,
charges against them for telling him he’s going die
failing to report a death. and that they weren’t go-
Supreme Court Justice An- ing to help him as he strug-
thony Kennedy, in a 2012 gled and screamed.
legal argument, summa- Police identified and inter-
rized that across the U.S. viewed the five teens in-
there’s no general duty to volved. The office of State
render aid to someone in Attorney Phil Archer initially
distress. “You don’t have determined there was no
the duty to rescue some- immediate indication that
one if that person is in dan- a crime was committed
ger. The blind man is walk- because state law does
ing in front of a car and not require people to give
you do not have a duty to or call for help when some-
stop him absent some re- one is in distress. But later,
lation between you,” Ken- after the story drew wide-
nedy said in arguments on spread attention online, of-
the Affordable Care Act, or ficials said they were pursu-
“Obamacare.” ing misdemeanor charges
Kennedy added that there of failure to report a death
are “some severe moral against the teenagers.q