Attorney: Declaring Jennifer Dulos dead could set precedent

FARMINGTON — A bevy of attorneys representing the estate of Fotis Dulos and his creditors will argue whether his estranged wife can be declared dead for probate purposes and how much his former criminal defense attorneys will have to return of a $250,000 retainer during a hearing in late October.

Attorney Christopher Hug, the court-appointed administrator of Fotis Dulos’ estate, contends he needs Jennifer Dulos declared dead by a Probate Court judge before he can disperse a $194,000 Individual Retirement Account.

Jennifer Dulos

For the estate to gain access to the IRA, a judge must determine that Jennifer Dulos predeceased Fotis Dulos since no beneficiary of the account was named.

The determination of death without a body could set precedent in Connecticut. It appears no one who has been missing for less than seven years has been declared dead in the state, according to case law cited by Hug’s attorney, Carmine Perri.

A hearing is scheduled in Farmington Probate Court for Oct. 22 when Hug also wants Judge Evelyn Daly to agree to a $137,500 settlement offered by criminal defense attorneys Norm Pattis and Kevin Smith to resolve a lawsuit alleging they improperly kept a $250,000 retainer Fotis Dulos paid them two weeks before he died.

That money would go to the estate to pay debts Fotis

Dulos racked up as he was fending off foreclosures, lawsuits and criminal charges in the death and disappearance of his estranged wife.

Attorneys representing Gloria Farber, the mother of Jennifer Farber, say the family has “stipulated” the 52-year-old mother of five is dead based on arrest and search warrants.

In arrest warrants, police claim Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” at his estranged wife’s New Canaan home when she returned from dropping off their children at school on May 24, 2019. The state’s chief medical examiner later determined Jennifer Dulos would not have survived the injuries without immediate medical attention, the warrants state.

Around the time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, police said Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle

Troconis, were seen on surveillance cameras driving around Hartford, the warrants state. The video footage showed Fotis Dulos making several stops and dumping bags that were later determined to contain his wife’s blood and clothing, the warrants state.

The U.S. Supreme Court and other state courts have ruled on deaths of people who have not been missing for seven years, Perri said in a brief filed Monday with the Probate Court. Those rulings were based on a “preponderance of the evidence” that a death may be proven during the period of time before a presumption of death arises, which in Connecticut is seven years.

Perri called the circumstances of the Jennifer Dulos disappearance and the issues surrounding the estate of her estranged husband “uncommon” and said he could find no other comparable Connecticut court decisions.

After being charged in

2019 with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution, Fotis Dulos was charged with murder and kidnapping on Jan. 7. He gave Pattis and Smith a

$250,000 fee on Jan. 16 to represent him in the pending murder case and in any appeal, according to documents filed in Probate Court. Two weeks later, Fotis Dulos died from an apparent suicide on Jan. 30.

Attorney Mark Dean, a trustee representing Farber, filed a lawsuit in August, alleging Pattis wrongfully kept the retainer months after his client died.

Attorney Richard Weinstein, representing Farber, contends a fee arrangement signed by Fotis Dulos and Smith indicates that any unused portion of the money, based on hourly rates, would be returned “if there is some unforeseen event that prevents me from continuing to represent you.”

“Based on the information that has been provided, Pattis and Smith provided minimal hourly services to the decedent Dulos between Jan. 10, let alone Jan. 16 to Jan. 30,” said Weinstein, who continued that all or the “majority” of the fee should have been “promptly” returned.

Attorney John Williams, representing Pattis, said his client had an arrangement with Fotis Dulos that the $250,000 included payment for earlier services provided while representing him on the earlier tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges in the case.

The signed agreement attached to Weinstein’s objection to the settlement does not indicate any of the money was payment for previous services.