Appellate Court won’t review decision on Troconis’ GPS
The state Appellate Court will not review Superior Court Judge John Blawie’s decision last month to keep Michelle Troconis on GPS monitoring in her pending criminal case in the disappearance and death of Jennifer Dulos.
The Appellate Court issued a brief order Monday denying a motion filed by Troconis’ attorney Jon Schoenhorn seeking the review of Blawie’s Feb. 2 decision.
The order does not describe why the motion was denied.
“I will continue to challenge the unnecessary and constitutionally questionable long-term use of GPS monitoring and ankle bracelets every chance I get,” said Schoenhorn, who last week said he would consider bringing the matter before the federal court.
“Many courts have held that this constitutes punishment, and therefore illegal for someone presumed innocent of any crime.
Troconis has pleaded not guilty to two counts of tampering with evidence, hindering prosecution and conspiracy to commit murder in three cases connected Dulos’ May 24, 2019, disappearance.
As a condition of her release on $2.1 million bond , Blawie ordered that Troconis wear an ankle bracelet monitoring device that tracks her movements 24 hours a day.
Schoenhorn has repeatedly asked the state Appellate Court to intervene to get the GPS tracker removed. The Appellate Court previously declined to intervene because a lower court had not ruled on Schoenhorn’s motion to have the device removed.
Schoenhorn argued in a supplemental brief to the Appellate Court filed Friday that police repeatedly lied to Troconis during a series of interviews and then used misleading or inaccurate information to obtain arrest warrants for his client.
Evidence submitted with the brief included transcribed excerpts of the police interviews with Troconis.
In one exchange between Troconis and investigators, state police told her that bloody items found in trash bags on Albany Avenue in Hartford were clothes belonging to Jennifer Dulos, according to the brief.
Troconis was captured on video sitting in a vehicle driven by her former boyfriend Fotis Dulos as he dumped garbage bags that contained the DNA and blood of his missing estranged wife Jennifer Dulos on the night she was reported missing, arrest warrant affidavits show.
Fotis Dulos died on Jan. 30, 2020, after a suicide attempt at his Farmington home. He had been charged with killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos, about three weeks earlier.
Troconis and attorney Kent Mawhinney were charged with conspiracy to commit murder on the same day.
Prosecutors said during the Feb. 2 court date that Mawhinney would testify against Troconis if her case went to trial.
Mawhinney is also required to wear electronic monitoring while free on bond which was reduced weeks after he spoke to investigators while incarcerated, according to court records.
In asking the Appellate Court to intervene, Schoenhorn claimed Troconis’ GPS monitor impacted her ability to water ski and attend her daughter’s snow ski competitions.
Prosecutors, including Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Ronald Weller with the Appellate Bureau within the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, have staunchly opposed any removal of the GPS unit, claiming Troconis has no serious ties to Connecticut and could be a flight risk.
Weller argued in an appellate brief filed Thursday that the trial court had not erred when it denied Troconis’ bid to have the device removed after arguments were heard in court on Feb. 2.
“The trial court’s ruling was well within its ambit of discretion,” Weller said. “The reasonableness of the court’s ruling is particularly evident given that the petitioner is not incarcerated, and now is no longer subject to numerous conditions that previously had been imposed.
“Given the seriousness of the crimes charged, the weight of evidence and the petitioner’s lack of ties to Connecticut, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by continuing the condition of electronic monitoring.”