PORTLAND — Linda Dolloff makes no admissions in a taped phone call with her husband about six weeks after he was severely beaten with a softball bat – an attack that prosecutors claim she committed.
Jeffrey Dolloff called his wife late last spring from the New England Rehabilitation Hospital in a “pretext call” at the request of Maine State Police, who taped the conversation. The recording was played at Linda Dolloff’s trial in Cumberland County Superior Court this morning.
Police were looking for more information or incriminating statements they could use against Linda Dolloff, who has been charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and filing a false report. Linda Dolloff has said that an intruder entered the couple’s home in Standish early in the morning of April 12, 2009, beat her husband and shot her in the abdomen. She called 911 to report a home invasion, which prosecutors allege was to cover up the assault.
Jeffrey Dolloff told Linda Dolloff he was calling because he had some questions for her. Linda Dolloff asked about her husband’s injuries and requested to be added to a visitor’s list – which Jeffrey Dolloff rebuffed. Jeffrey Dolloff then asked his wife what happened the night he was attacked.
She repeats the same story she told police, saying she got up when she heard a noise and was shot in the hallway by someone she didn’t see. The intruder then dropped the gun – which had been taken from the top drawer of Jeffrey Dolloff’s dresser – and it went off when she reached out to grab it, with the bullet hitting a wall. She then called 911.
“None of it makes any sense to me,” Jeffrey Dolloff said.
“None of it makes sense to me, either,” Linda Dolloff said.
After Jeffrey Dolloff asked her more about the incident, Linda Dolloff asked if he thought she had something to do with his beating.
After saying he was hearing all sorts of things, Linda Dolloff said she couldn’t do such a horrible thing.
“Jeffrey, this wasn’t my fault,” she said.
The call continued with Jeffrey Dolloff telling his wife that she wouldn’t be allowed back in the couple’s home or in an attached apartment, where the two had agreed weeks earlier she could stay while they divorced. Jeffrey Dolloff testified Thursday that the couple had recently reached a settlement for a divorce, although no papers had been filed.
He then says the only person who could beat him so badly would be somebody extremely angry with him, and continues – referring to himself in the third person – “right now the only person pissed off at Jeff is you.”
At the end of the call, Linda Dolloff tells her husband she still loves him.
“I haven’t given up hope, you know,” she said.
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