The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Search for Jennifer Dulos nears $1M in law enforcement overtime
NEW CANAAN — The search for Jennifer Dulos — spanning nearly two years steered by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies — is approaching $1 million in police overtime, according to a Hearst Connecticut Media analysis of payroll data.
Connecticut State Police spent about $730,000 in overtime from May 24, 2019 — the day the New Canaan mother vanished — to Oct. 13, 2020, the latest date the data was available. However, most of the overtime — nearly $558,000 — was accrued between May 24 and July 18, 2019, the data shows.
New Canaan police officers accrued $63,259 in overtime between May 24, 2019 and Oct. 13, 2020, according to data Hearst Connecticut
Media obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Farmington police have accrued 153 hours of overtime, but the department did not provide the cost. Hartford and Avon police have participated in the investigation, but have not used over
time on the case.
The figures are important to defense attorney Jon Schoenhorn as he crafts a defense for his client, Michelle Troconis, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges in the case.
“There’s a natural tendency to want to receive some type of motivation for your effort in a case this big,” Schoenhorn said. “I’m not saying that it’s the only motivation, but it certainly is a motivation.”
Troconis is accused of being an accomplice to her former boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, who died last January from an apparent suicide while facing murder, kidnapping and other charges in the death and disappearance of his estranged wife.
On Saturday, it will be one year since Fotis Dulos died at Jacobi Medical Center in New York on Jan. 30, 2020, two days after the suicide attempt at his Farmington home.
The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has concluded that Fotis Dulos died from complications of acute carbon monoxide intoxication as a result of a suicide attempt.
His death thrust Troconis and longtime friend and former attorney, Kent Mawhinney, into the forefront of the case that has drawn international attention. Like Troconis, Mawhinney has been released on bond after pleading not guilty to conspiracy
to commit murder.
Since becoming Troconis’ attorney shortly after Fotis Dulos’ death, Schoenhorn has filed numerous court motions, including one asking Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr. to turn over documents detailing the cost of the investigation.
Colangelo’s office did not accrue any overtime during the investigation, according to Executive Assistant State’s Attorney Brett Salafia. Colangelo has been the primary employee working on the case with assistance from two other attorneys, Salafia said.
Salafia said there was no way to separate the time they spent working on the Dulos case from their regular duties.
The state police, however, have been using a specific payroll code for the Dulos case since June 7, 2019, according to Shelley Vincenzo, a member of the Legal Affairs Unit of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees the state police.
Members of the State Police Western District Major Crimes Unit and the State Police K-9 unit accrued the most Dulos overtime with 178 people filing for at least 25
minutes of overtime between June 7, 2019 and Oct. 13, 2020, the payroll data shows.
In August 2019, attorney Jay DonFrancisco, who was with the Legal Affairs Unit of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, said state police spent $557,609.21 in overtime from May 24 to July 18, 2019. DonFrancisco is no longer with the agency and the data he released can no longer be verified, Vincenzo said.
The state police payroll documents show the investigation pulled in employees from nearly every troop and unit throughout the
agency in the first few months as investigators searched for Jennifer Dulos and tried to preserve evidence.
Four members of the State Police K-9 Unit filed for $36,454 in overtime between June 7 and June 23, 2019 as they conducted an extensive search of a Hartford trash facility. The search began after police said they discovered videos of Fotis Dulos dumping bags in trash bins along Albany Avenue in Hartford the night of his estranged wife’s disappearance.
However, the videos were discovered a week later, prompting a frantic search of the trash bins. Police said they were able to recover a few of the bags, which contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants.
Most of the trash bins had already been emptied with the contents taken to the Materials Innovation Recycling Authority plant in Hartford. The K-9 unit spent three weeks at the trash facility, totaling more than 504 hours in overtime, according to the payroll documents. Colangelo has said nothing was found at the plant.
New Canaan Police Officer Thomas Patten has been the lead investigator in the case along with Detective John Kimball, of the State Police Western District Major Crimes Unit.
New Canaan police did not provide the amount of overtime Patten has accrued on the case.
After receiving $33,441 in overtime in 2018, Kimball netted $74,143 in 2019 and $67,254 in 2020 in total overtime, according to State Comptroller Kevin Lembo’s OpenPayroll website.
The overtime data shows that investigations do not end once an arrest has been made, according to Brian Foley, executive assistant to DESPP Commissioner James Rovella.
“During any homicide or criminal investigation, there are still witnesses to be interviewed and evidence to be examined,” Foley said. “It’s about identifying the innocent as well as the guilty and it doesn’t end at the arrest. It continues through the adjudication process.”