System works when our rights are protected
Primaries in a clutch of cities in towns enjoyed smooth execution on Tuesday. Polling places opened on time, ballots were plentiful, votes were cast in an efficient manner, and the results were shared with the public. As important, the disappointed losers expressed no quarrel with the operation of the system.
The winners will go one to the November competition, if there is any in their community. Between now and then we will see more politics — free speech, free press, and the right to assemble. Open and free elections are critical elements in a society that enjoys freedom under the rules of law.
Yes, yes, yes, you may be thinking, we all know that. The freedoms and protections accorded each of us go beyond politics. They extend, as they must, to criminal law. The investigation into the disappearance of former Farmington resident Jennifer Farber Dulos from her New Canaan home on May 24 has captured the public’s attention and continues to provide important reminders of our shared rights.
Jennifer Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, has been arrested for tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. His girlfriend at the time of the disappearance, Michelle Traconis, has also been charged with the same crimes. The Courant’s Dave Altimari has been leading the news coverage of a story featuring many surprises. The biggest one for the public appears to be that Fotis Dulos has not been arrested for the murder of Jennifer Dulos.
Be glad.
Suspected homicides without a body are always a challenge for investigators and prosecutors. You do not want to live in a country that jails suspects because the police have hunch. The Dulos investigation is providing frequent reminders of the rights that protect us all.
Sixty-minute episodes of television crime dramas are distorting our notions of how law enforcement works. The Dulos investigation is a dose of reality. Police work entails a lot of drudgery. The case is drawing international attention not only because alleged crimes committed on the rich, and Jennifer Dulos appears to be wealthy even if her husband was not, but also due to the extraordinary amount of video images investigators have located that appear to capture images of Fotis Dulos.
Police investigators must have spent thousands of hours searching for video cameras, obtaining footage and then reviewing it. The investigation is a reminder that we live in a surveillance age, created in large part by ourselves with the proliferation of affordable technology. Assume there is a
record of what you are doing and behave yourself. At the same time, be glad technology is making it easier to solve crimes.
It strikes me that a free press has been helpful in advancing the investigation of Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance. The Courant has reported on what happened to the alleged odyssey of a couple of the plastic bags that Traconis and Fotis Dulos appear to have disposed of in Hartford not long after Jennifer Dulos disappeared. The more the public learns about the case through the press, the more likely it is some people realize they may know something helpful.
In Connecticut, police and prosecutors draft an affidavit setting forth the information they have gathered and submit it to a judge with a request for a warrant to arrest a suspect on specific charges. The judge has to decide if the warrant contains credible facts that amount to probable cause that a crime has been committed by the subject of the warrant. The Fourth Amendment to Constitution guarantees these protections to you and everyone else. Be glad. There are plenty of democratic nations that are not as generous in protecting the rights of the accused.
The attention the public is paying to the Dulos case and the extraordinary resources law enforcement is devoting to solving it make it more likely that the case will be solved. The passing of each day leads to the inescapable conclusion that the mother of five young children was the victim of a killer.
Fotis Dulos has the right to legal counsel. The right of that legal counsel and others involved in the investigations to speak to the public through the media is broad but not unlimited, as we learned Thursday with news of the court granting a request for a gag order by a state prosecutor. Dulos’ lawyer says he’ll appeal that. The rights guaranteed to each of us can sometimes infuriate most of us when exercised by others. They are the best way to justice.
You would not want it any other way.