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Lorin Zaner
Attorney at Law
U.S.: TOLEDO MAN
WANTED WIFE KILLED BEFORE TESTIMONY
Article ID: 0206060063
Published on June 6, 2002 - The Blade (Toledo, OH)
Dale Quigley had a problem. Federal authorities said the
Toledo man longed to get out of jail before he was sentenced
for a firearms charge, but he thought his wife would testify
against him. Locked up in the Lucas County jail, he allegedly
made a decision: She had to die. But the hit man with whom
he schemed to make her death look like an accident turned
out to be an agent with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, according to a federal affidavit
released yesterday. Now, rather than facing a likely two-year
sentence for possessing unregistered silencers, Quigley,
57, whose last known address was 3445 College Drive, faces
an additional 10 years for the murder-for-hire plot.
Magistrate Vernelis Armstrong denied him bond on the new charge during his
initial appearance yesterday in U.S. District Court. Quigley's plan was foiled
because a fellow inmate who was to find the hit man instead went to the police,
the affidavit said. The inmate may have saved the life of Diana Quigley, the
suspect's estranged wife, said Tom Secor, an assistant U.S. attorney." If
the [inmate] doesn't go to the authorities and gets out and tries to [kill
her] himself, she's at serious risk," Mr. Secor said. "Based on all
the conversations he had, it's very clear that's what [Quigley] wanted done." Mr.
Secor said the conversations between Quigley and the would-be hit man were
recorded.
On Monday, when the agent told Quigley the hit had been carried out, Quigley
said, "excellent," according to the affidavit. Mrs. Quigley could
not be reached for comment, but her divorce lawyer, Lorin Zaner, said she had
been scared of her husband. "My client was afraid of him getting out of
jail and didn't want it to happen," Mr. Zaner said. Quigley, a tooi-and-die
worker with a Ford auto plant near Detroit, was in trouble with the law because
of a tip by his wife's lawyer. In February, Mrs. Quigley brought Mr. Zaner
a stack of $11,750 in counterfeit $50 bills, the affidavit stated. She also
brought nine fake driver's licenses her husband had from different states and
other false identification documents, records state.
Mr. Zaner contacted the U.S. Secret Service, which brought in the ATF. After
Mrs. Quigley consented to a search of their Point Place home, agents found
guns and five silencers. Later in February Quigley was arrested. In May, he
pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to possession of unregistered firearm
silencers. He faced a possible 10-year sentence, but Jon Richardson, his attorney,
said the sentence likely would have been for two years. Following his plea,
Quigley wanted his wife killed before she could testify at a bond hearing in
which he could have been released before his sentencing, according to the affidavit.
He stated he wanted her killed while he was in jail so he would not be a suspect,
court records state. Mr. Richardson said he had not heard the tapes the government
claims to have so he could not comment on the new charge. But he said his client
now faces a lot more trouble. "A small problem now has been compounded
into a much larger one," Mr. Richardson said "But these are separate
allegations and they'll have to be handled separately."
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