PORTLAND — A judge ruled Wednesday that a Standish woman’s statements to police, her bloody shirt and her DNA are all admissible evidence in her trial on charges that she tried to kill her husband with a baseball bat.
Justice Joyce Wheeler did side with Linda Dolloff in saying that prosecutors cannot use the black pajama pants that were taken from her in the ambulance while she was being treated for a gunshot wound — an injury that police say was self-inflicted.
Dolloff, 48, called police on April 12, 2009, to say an intruder had attacked her husband and shot her. She had a bullet wound in her thigh, one that just missed vital organs and shattered her hip, her lawyer said.
She was arrested June 17 on charges of attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and making a false public report. Police say she beat her husband, Jeffrey Dolloff, 54, almost to death with a baseball bat before shooting herself to make it look like a home invasion.
Jeffrey Dolloff’s relatives told police that he had a girlfriend and had recently changed his life insurance policy, according to the judge’s ruling in Cumberland County Superior Court
Dolloff denies the charges against her. She and her husband were getting a divorce, but it was amicable, she says.
Her attorney, Daniel Lilley, accused police of using erroneous information to get search warrants, and of coercing statements from his client when she was hospitalized and being treated with morphine.
Specifically, Lilley said, state police Detective William Ross included false statements in his request for a search warrant. If the rationale for the warrant was false, then the evidence seized should be thrown out, Lilley said.
Ross said in his request for the warrant that Dolloff changed her story over time. He wrote that, initially, she said she fell to the floor after being shot and touched a gun that had fallen there. Later, she said that she squeezed the gun with her left hand and it fired, he wrote.
However, an enhanced recording of Ross’ interview with Dolloff indicated that she did originally say the gun went off, but that her response was muffled by her crying.
Justice Wheeler determined that Ross’ mistake was not intentional and there was plenty of information for a search warrant without that erroneous information.
Wheeler also determined that Dolloff’s interviews with Ross and with Cumberland County Sheriff’s Detective Gerard “Biff” Brady were voluntary. Brady repeatedly asked her if she wanted to stop and continue talking at another time, but she volunteered to continue, the judge wrote.
“This decision shows the police officers acted with integrity,” said District Attorney Stephanie Anderson.
Lilley could not be reached for comment.
Linda Dolloff, who walked with a limp during last month’s court hearing, is scheduled to go on trial April 21. Jury selection begins Monday.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
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