Attorney calls for phone evidence to be thrown out

STAMFORD — Attorney Norm Pattis is hoping to have any evidence culled from a cellphone owned by Fotis Dulos suppressed in the case of his missing estranged wife.

Fotis Dulos, 52, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, have pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.

One of the phones provided key information that led to the discovery of evidence connecting Fotis Dulos with the disappearance of his wife, according to court documents.

The records for one of the phones revealed Fotis Dulos traveled to 80 Mountain Road in Farmington, a property owned by his real estate development business, the Fore Group, and Albany Avenue in Hartford on May 24.

The records obtained from his cellphone provider pinged off towers in Hartford around 7 p.m., about the same time friends reported Jennifer Dulos missing, arrest warrants said.

The phone records led New Canaan police to seek assistance from the Hartford Police Department, which has an extensive system of surveillance cameras throughout the city. New Canaan investigators said in arrest warrants charging Fotis Dulos and Troconis with the two misdemeanor crimes that Hartford videos showed two people resembling the pair stopping close to 30 times along Albany Avenue that night.

The man was seen in a black Ford Raptor, matching the vehicle Fotis Dulos owns, placing “multiple” garbage bags into trash bins along the busy city street, the warrant said. Garbage bags that police retrieved a week later contained clothing and other items stained with Jennifer Dulos’ blood, the warrants said.

The warrant states that Fotis Dulos went with an attorney to the New Canaan Police Department the day after his wife was reported missing. Fotis Dulos provided a New Canaan detective with an iPhone, which was seized by police, the document said.

The question of whether evidence gleaned from the phone can be suppressed will hinge largely on when it was gathered, said attorney Brittany Paz, who is not involved in the case. Fotis Dulos is allowed to revoke his consent of a search of the phone, she said.

But that doesn’t mean a judge would rule that all the evidence gathered in connection with the phone would be suppressed, she said. The phone itself contains physical evidence such as text messages and photos.

A key issue the judge will consider is at what point Fotis Dulos asked for the phone back, she said.

“It will all depend on when the consent to look at the phone was given and when he asked for it back,” she said.

If he asked for the phone back after a search warrant was obtained, then there will be no grounds to suppress evidence, she said. But if he asked for the phone back before the search warrant was obtained, and was refused, there could be a problem, she said.

“It all hinges on how long before they got the warrant did he ask for it back,” said Paz, who previously worked with Pattis.

Police may be able to claim an exigency due to the fact a woman was missing, she said. The phone was seized “under the belief it contained evidence of a crime and/or information which could lead to the discovery of Jennifer Dulos,” arrest warrants said.

The other issue is the records turned over to police by Fotis Dulos’ cellphone provider, Paz added. It is unlikely that a judge will rule that the phone records — which in this case police said led to evidence connecting Fotis Dulos to the disappearance — should be suppressed since investigators could have gathered them without the physical phone, she said.

Police obtained search warrants for a forensic review of the phone and for a review of the cellphone records associated with the device, the arrest warrant said. The search warrants in the case are sealed until September. Stamford State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo declined to comment Monday on Pattis’ request for a suppression hearing on the phone.

Pattis contended during Friday’s pretrial hearing that police took the phone May 25 without a search warrant and refused to give it back.

“He didn’t give the state of Connecticut an irrevocable gift,” Pattis told Judge John Blawie. “The state kept it without a warrant, our view is that the phone and the fruits of that phone are suppressible.”

In a motion filed in June, Pattis asked the court to return several items seized by police as part of the massive investigation into the disappearance of the New Canaan mother of five, who was involved in a bitter twoyear divorce and custody battle with her husband.