Dibartolo Verdict Delivers Message Officers Say Painstaking Investigation Proved Police Are Not Above The Law

Spokane law enforcement agencies took no great satisfaction when a jury convicted Tom DiBartolo last week of killing his wife.

The guilty verdict, however, delivered a message that Spokane County Sheriff John Goldman said needed to be heard loud and clear.

“That’s the message that we police officers get our authority from the law and the people. And no one, including police officers, is above the law,” Goldman said Monday.

“That’s what this case was all about.”

Friday’s verdict in Superior Court gave Goldman and Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan the opportunity to make their first public comments about the case.

Both of them praised what they considered “unique and exceptional” teamwork between the two law enforcement agencies.

The night DiBartolo’s wife Patty was murdered with a gunshot to the head in Lincoln Park, a detective from the city and the county were quickly assigned to the case.

Dozens more took part in the year between the shooting - Nov. 2, 1996 - and the trial, Goldman noted.

The two departments and the prosecutor’s office worked closely to make sure the investigation was “as impartial as it could be,” Goldman said.

“This was a serious, difficult matter for us,” he added. “What made it hit home was not just that a deputy was involved, but that a lot of our people knew Patty and knew the kids, too.”

The amount of publicity about the case demanded an investigation and prosecution that held up under full scrutiny, Mangan said.

Most law enforcement officers were as skeptical as the general public was when they first heard DiBartolo’s explanation about the murder, Mangan said.

DiBartolo told police he and his wife were walking in Spokane’s Lincoln Park when two black men demanded money. DiBartolo claimed one man grabbed a loaded handgun from the couple’s minivan, fired one shot that killed his wife, and a second that wounded him in the abdomen.

Mangan said he and others insisted investigators look at every lead in the case, not just focus on DiBartolo.

“We decided from the start that every lead would be pursued relentlessly. And that had to be done painstakingly,” Mangan said.

As the investigation continued, Mangan said some people in the community wondered why an arrest hadn’t happened sooner.

“We’d get comments from people saying, ‘If you watched TV, you’d have this guy arrested by now,”’ Mangan said.

When he was arrested in January, DiBartolo was charged with first-degree premeditated murder.

DiBartolo’s defense attorney, Maryann Moreno, told jurors police fixated on DiBartolo as a suspect early in the investigation.

But Mangan said most people managing the investigation knew they had to avoid the accusation of “tunnel vision.”

Police and sheriff’s deputies took the unusual step of holding near-daily conferences to bring everyone up to date on what was happening in the investigation, Goldman said. “We wanted to make sure every leaf had been turned over and every contingency was checked,” he said.

When other leads were found, police pursued them but found no other suspects, Goldman said.

Before the trial started and anyone knew how strong the evidence against DiBartolo was, Goldman said most people in his department could only hope the outcome would be clear.

“What I heard people say was they hoped the investigation would bring a clear and convincing result, whatever it was,” Goldman said.

DiBartolo was fired from his job in April, ending his 18-year career in law enforcement. He will be sentenced in Spokane County Superior Court at 9 a.m. Jan. 21.

, DataTimes