Dibartolo’s Lawyer Hints At Strategy Moreno Clearly Wants Jurors To Think Investigators Tried To Pressure Suspect

Tom DiBartolo’s defense attorney provided jurors a glimpse into her strategy Tuesday, grilling detectives about how they interrogated the former sheriff’s deputy after his wife’s murder.

Maryann Moreno showed hints of the defense she plans to mount during the questioning of two police detectives who talked to DiBartolo about his troubles with money.

During her cross-examination of detectives Roger Bays and Cal Walker, Moreno accused them of initiating conversations with DiBartolo about finances.

Prosecutors say DiBartolo killed his wife last Nov. 2 because he wanted to collect $100,000 from Patty DiBartolo’s life insurance policy.

According to Bays and Walker, who are prosecution witnesses, DiBartolo talked about being in dire financial straits between the time of his wife’s death and his arrest on Jan. 29.

But Moreno clearly wants jurors to think police investigators had settled on DiBartolo as a prime suspect in November, then tried to pressure him into self-incriminating comments by asking him questions about his finances.

On Tuesday, the detectives told jurors that DiBartolo said he was strapped for cash because of the expense of his wife’s funeral, the loss of her income and the refusal of the insurance company to pay her death benefit.

The insurance company told DiBartolo it couldn’t pay him until he was cleared as a suspect in her death.

“Is he the one who always brought up financial problems?” Moreno asked Walker.

“I couldn’t say I never brought up the topic,” Walker replied.

Moreno then asked Walker if Spokane police ever told DiBartolo they had been in contact with the insurance company.

Walker said he had not talked to DiBartolo about that, and that “I believe Detective Bays did not” either.

“You weren’t really telling him the truth, were you?” Moreno asked.

Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz objected to the question and Moreno was asked to rephrase it by Judge Neal Rielly.

Walker then said that detectives were vague with the insurance company, telling officials that they were investigating all leads, but could not confirm or deny DiBartolo was a suspect.

DiBartolo says he and his wife were attacked in Spokane’s Lincoln Park by two men demanding money. One man reached into DiBartolo’s van, took out a handgun and fired two shoots during a struggle. One shot killed his wife, he said. The second wounded him in the abdomen.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT Prosecutors expect to rest their case Monday after a two-day Thanksgiving recess.