Troconis’ attorney wants police interviews tossed out
The attorney representing Michelle Troconis asked a judge Wednesday to bar statements she made to police in three interviews on the disappearance and death of Jennifer Dulos, arguing that English isn’t her first language and no Spanish interpreter was supplied during the questioning.
Attorney Jon Schoenhorn, representing Troconis, contends in a motion to suppress the interviews that his client didn’t understand her rights as she was being
questioned because they weren’t read to her in Spanish.
Troconis, the former girlfriend of Jennifer Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, faces charges including conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with Jennifer Dulos’ disappearance. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and been free on bond as her case moves to trial.
The filing comes a day before Kent Mawhinney, Fotis Dulos’ longtime friend and attorney, will appear in court on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder connected to the disappearance. Mawhinney has pleaded not guilty and is also free on bond.
Schoenhorn argued state police investigators intentionally interviewed her early in the morning and lied when they said she could have her daughter back if she waived her right to an attorney during questioning, the filing read.
“Law enforcement officials intentionally planned the arrest of the defendant late on a Saturday night after unlawfully barring her from her home, in a planned unconstitutional scheme to detain and interrogate her at a time when they knew she was caring for her minor child, would be sleep deprived, subjected her to an unlawful and humiliating strip search the prior evening, and would have difficulty contacting a lawyer, in order to subject her to psychological pressure and intimidation, to break down her resistance to unlawful interrogation,” Schoenhorn said in the motion.
Schoenhorn wants any statements his client made to investigators that morning and during two subsequent interviews to be barred from use during a trial, according to the filing.
Troconis was first charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos who went missing on May 24, 2019.
Troconis was living with Jennifer Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, when his wife disappeared. Fotis and Jennifer Dulos were embroiled in a contentious two-year divorce and custody battle over their five children when she went missing, records show. Jennifer Dulos’ remains have not been found and she is presumed dead by police and her family.
Troconis and Fotis Dulos were charged two other times with crimes connected to the disappearance. Fotis Dulos died on Jan. 30, 2020, three weeks after he was charged with murder.
Troconis and Mahwinney
were charged with conspiracy to commit murder on the same day investigators took Fotis Dulos into custody to charge him with murder.
Troconis was born in the United States but moved to Venezuela as a small child with her family and later lived in Argentina. Shortly after Schoenhorn was hired to represent her in February 2020, he began requesting a Spanish-speaking interpreter at all court proceedings.
In the motion filed Wednesday, Schoenhorn said his client asked if any of the investigators questioning her on June 2 spoke Spanish and the detectives conducting the interrogation knew her comprehension of the English language was limited. The three interviews were all conducted in English, Schoenhorn said.
“Consequently, her verbal responses were neither reliable nor accurately portrayed in subsequent warrant affidavits,” Schoenhorn said.
Troconis was also interviewed by police on June 6 and Aug. 13, 2019, without a Spanish-speaking attorney or an interpreter present, Schoenhorn said.
“The June 6 and Aug. 13, 2019 statements were the fruit of, and tainted by, the unconstitutional conduct of law enforcement officials on May 31 and June 2, 2019, and their use to obtain subsequent warrants render those warrants invalid,” Schoenhorn said.
Fotis Dulos was accused of “lying in wait” for his estranged wife after she dropped their children off at school the morning of May 24, 2019. Troconis and Fotis Dulos were captured on video in Hartford that night dumping garbage bags that contained the blood, DNA and clothing of Jennifer Dulos, arrest records show.
Schoenhorn contends his client didn’t know what Fotis Dulos was doing when he was discarding the trash bags.
Troconis is due back in court Oct. 7. Schoenhorn has filed several motions related to her case that are still pending.