Email: Prosecutor notified of bond concerns hours after Dulos release

A Connecticut bondwoman raised concerns with the lead prosecutor in the Fotis Dulos murder case within hours of the Farmington man’s Jan. 9 release on a $6 million bond.

Nearly three weeks later, on the morning he was due in court for a hearing on the bond, Dulos, who died

Thursday, was found in his car after an apparent suicide attempt.

The 52year-old, charged with murder, felony murder and kidnapping in the death and disappearance of his estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos, faced his bond being revoked and being sent back to jail at the hearing.

The hearing was called after the company that backed the bond discovered Fotis Dulos did not disclose that two homes put up as collateral were under foreclosure and didn’t provide enough value. In a motion

filed in state Superior Court in Stamford, the South Carolina company stated the new information meant the bond created more risk than is allowed under Connecticut law.

The Connecticut and South Carolina state departments of insurance are now investigating Palmetto Surety Corporation, which backed the $6 million bond, according to attorney Ryan McGuigan, who is representing the Charleston company.

South Carolina insurance officials said they were aware of “the situation surrounding the defendant” and said they were monitoring Palmetto. But agency officials declined comment “on any regulatory oversight of our companies.”

Officials from the Connecticut state Department of Insurance did not return phone calls on Friday.

McGuigan said Palmetto was notified last Monday that the company and the $6 million bond were under investigation by the state Department of Insurance.

“They wanted all the records and we cooperated fully with the investigation,” said McGuigan, of Hartford-based Rome McGuigan.

McGuigan filed a motion Tuesday morning, indicating Palmetto was no longer willing to back the bond. McGuigan said in the motion that Dulos didn’t mention that two of the homes — 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington and 61 Sturbridge Hill Road in New Canaan — he put up as collateral for the bond were in foreclosure.

Farmington police found Dulos unresponsive in his running car in his garage around noon that day when he failed to appear for the emergency bond hearing in Stamford. The hearing was postponed to Wednesday when Judge Gary White revoked the bond and ordered Dulos rearrested if he survived.

After being arrested on the latest charges on Jan. 7, Dulos spent two nights in jail before being released on house arrest and monitored by an electronic tracking device when he posted the $6 million bond.

Anna Curry, a former co-worker listed on bond documents as his “best friend,” immediately paid $147,000 and agreed to 15 monthly installments of $18,143.33 to pay off the remainder of the $420,150 needed to release Dulos, who also wrote a check for $1,000, according to state Insurance Department documents obtained by

Hearst Connecticut Media.

Mary Anne Casey, owner of Casey Bail Bonds Inc., and an advocate for Connecticut bond reform, said she immediately noticed potential issues with Dulos’ bond.

Within hours of Dulos’ release on Jan. 9, Casey emailed Richard Colangelo, the prosecutor on the case who was appointed chief state’s attorney on Thursday. Casey alerted Colangelo about her concerns that the bond could have been improperly written and pose a risk for escape, she wrote at 3:30 p.m. Jan 9 in an email obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Colangelo could not be reached Friday for comment about the bond.

Connecticut law requires companies to only back bonds up to 10 percent of their annual surplus. If the company’s surplus in any year is $6 million, then it could back a bond for $600,000 and is required to obtain liquid assets as collateral for the rest, Casey said as an example.

Casey said a Connecticut state trooper contacted her a few days after her email to Colangelo. Casey said she told the trooper that the Department of Insurance should be notified because she believed Palmetto didn’t have the surplus capital or the proper amount of collateral to back a $6 million bond.

Casey, who has worked as a bondwoman in the state for nearly four decades, told a state Department of Insurance official in a Jan 16 email that she believed based on public financial records that “the only way a bond of this size could have been executed legally is if another company was willing to reinsure them,” she said.

She contends there should have been a closer examination of the property values that Dulos provided as collateral before the bond was signed.

The $147,000 Curry already paid is not refundable unless the Connecticut or South Carolina departments of insurance void the bond, Casey said. Curry could also be on the hook for the remaining $272,000 she was supposed to pay in installments, Casey said.

Curry could not be reached for comment. Dulos’ attorney Norm Pattis did not respond to requests on Friday for comment about the bond.

Casey is calling for the Connecticut and South Carolina insurance agencies to closely examine the bond and to investigate others that Palmetto currently has on file.

“This is something that should not be ignored,” she said.

Fotis Dulos