Polk woman says she is innocent in Shakespeare case

For months, Dorice Donegan "Dee Dee" Moore avoided questions from the media about lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare.

Even after the Polk County Sheriff's Office said she went to great lengths to make it seem that Shakespeare was still alive after he was last seen in April 2009.

Even after Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said it appeared Shakespeare was the victim of a homicide and that Moore was a "person of interest."

Even after Shakespeare's body was found last week, buried 5 feet deep under a concrete slab, on a property Moore owned with her boyfriend.

This afternoon, Moore opened up.

In an exclusive interview with The Tampa Tribune, Moore talked about how she met Shakespeare and how she came to manage his money. She talked about having the concrete slab Shakespeare was found under poured last April, for a boat skirt. She said it was her tip that led investigators to Shakespeare's body. How at least one of the killers knew his victim.

And she talked about how she anticipates being arrested. No one has been charged in the crime, nor named as a suspect.

Sitting at the ornate wooden table in the dining room of the posh house she bought from Shakespeare last January, Moore talked for nearly two hours about the man who won $31 million in the Florida Lottery in 2006 and whose luck, investigators say, ran out last year.

"I didn't hurt Abraham in any way," she said.

She first met Shakespeare sometime in the fall of 2008, she said, introduced by a woman she will not name.

Moore said she wanted to write a book about Shakespeare's life. She said she has eight chapters written so far.

"I didn't hurt him," she said. "I've talked to detectives. I am not going anywhere. I am not moving my stuff out of the house. I am not running."

When the two met, Shakespeare had run through $11 million, Moore said.

"He had nothing left but $1 million and assets. I helped him with his finances."

Polk County records show Shakespeare bought the two-story, 6,500-square-foot home for more than $1 million in January 2007 and sold it to American Medical Professionals - a company owned by Moore and her boyfriend - in January 2009 for $655,000.

Judd has said Moore moved nearly $2 million of Shakespeare's assets into her own accounts. Moore denied any wrongdoing.

"Everything I did as far as [Shakespeare's] money was done before Abraham went missing and done with his full acknowledgment and consent."

The money, said Moore, had become a burden to Shakespeare.

"He enjoyed being around people, but having all this attention with people wanting to borrow money from him was too much," she said. "The lottery was more like a curse than a blessing. And now it is the same way in my life, because of what is happening to me now."

Moore said the last time she saw Shakespeare was April. She would not offer specifics about when or where, "because that is part of the investigation," she said.

Because of the accusations - that she texted Shakespeare's friends and family pretending it was him, paid a Shakespeare cousin $5,000 to deliver a cash-filled birthday card to Shakespeare's mother and offered to give a $200,000 house to someone if they made a false report to investigators that Shakespeare was still alive - and because Shakespeare was found buried on her property, she anticipates being arrested.

"No, I am not worried," she said. "I am innocent."

When asked about the allegations, Moore offered a measured response.

"There are always two sides to every story," she said.

Moore said she talked to investigators as recently as Saturday. She said she told investigators, "I would never take another human's life. No amount of money in the world is worth that."

Sheriff's officials in Polk and Hillsborough counties declined comment.

Shakespeare, she said, "had enemies." She said she shared that information with investigators. There were at least two killers, she said, and at least one of them knew Shakespeare. She would not offer any details of her knowledge beyond that.

After Shakespeare was killed, his body was buried on the property at 5802 S.R. 60 E. just outside of Plant City. The hole was covered with concrete, which investigators excavated last week.

Moore said that in April, she hired a company to pour concrete on the property. It was the slab under which Shakespeare was eventually found. She said it was for a skirt for a boat and a camper.

She said it was her tip that ultimately led investigators to Shakespeare's body.

Standing in front of in-progress work of art she calls "Peace," Moore talked about how given everything that has transpired, it is unlikely she will ever find any herself.

"I just want justice brought," she said. "God above sees all. That is the person who has done this has to answer to."