Fotis Dulos civil trial scheduled for December
A civil trial pitting Fotis Dulos against his missing wife’s mother over whether he owes the family millions of dollars will start on Dec. 3 in Hartford Superior Court, but it appears that Michelle Troconis, his former girlfriend, will not be testifying.
The trial is expected to take at least three days and will be held before a judge and not a jury.
Attorney Richard Weinstein, who is representing Gloria Farber, the mother of Jennifer Farber Dulos who has been missing since May 24, submitted a proposed witness list this week that doesn’t include Troconis. Troconis, like Dulos, has been charged twice with tampering with evidence in connection with the disappearance.
Weinstein has been fighting to get Troconis to answer questions about what she knows about the business dealings of the Fore Group, Dulos’ home construction company. During a recent deposition she refused to answer his questions, citing the Fifth Amendment, which protects her from self-incrimination. Her attorney Andrew Bowman has said in court papers that he advised her to take the Fifth because he is concerned she could face conspiracy to murder charges for the disappearance of Farber Dulos and any questions surrounding her relationship with him could be used against her.
The civil trial has proceeded in the background of the high-profile investigation into the disappearance of Farber Dulos, a mother of five children who was last seen dropping her children off at school in New Canaan on the morning of May 24.
Dulos has been charged twice with tampering with evidence and is free on a combined $1 million bond. Troconis also has been charged twice and is free on a combined $600,000 bond. Police are still investigating the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos.
Troconis recently moved all of her belongings out of the Jefferson Court home in Farmington where she lived with Dulos.
The Jefferson Court home is one of the properties under dispute in the civil trial.
The lawsuit alleges that Hillard Farber, Gloria’s husband, transferred approximately $10 million to Fore Group and that Fore Group transferred approximately $7.3 million back to Farber. Hillard Farber has since died and Gloria, as executor of his estate, is the plaintiff in this case.
The lawsuit claims that the amounts transferred were loans and seeks to recover approximately $2,541,831. Dulos claims that the money was given to him as a gift.
Dulos, who has been deposed for this lawsuit, is listed as a defense witness and will likely have to testify.
Troconis is not listed as a plaintiff witness, but she could still be called by Weinstein as a rebuttal witness.
Weinstein has questioned Dulos’ finances, saying that he believes a Greek benefactor is covering the cost of the lawyers representing Dulos in his criminal, civil and family court cases. He has tried unsuccessfully to subpoena attorney Norm Pattis, Dulos’s criminal attorney, to reveal how he is being paid by his client.
Weinstein also sought to have Troconis answer questions about Dulos’ finances. He specifically asked her about personal credit card purchases using cards in the name of the Fore Group. He also asked her who paid for recent trips to such places as Spain, Greece and Colorado.
In a 43-page arrest warrant released last month after Dulos and Troconis were charged with tampering with evidence a second time, state police allege that Dulos was “lying in wait” for his wife back at her house.
The arrest affidavit details how state police investigators used a variety of video surveillance systems to chart how they believe Dulos traveled from his Farmington home to Farber Dulos’ New Canaan home early on the day she disappeared, Police say he was driving a red Toyota truck that belonged to a Fore group employee — and later fled the crime scene with the body.
“The crime and clean-up are believed to have occurred between 8:05 a.m. and 10:25 a.m,” the warrant said.
Jennifer’s white Chevy Suburban
is seen leaving the New Canaan home around 10:25 a.m. and state police theorize that Dulos was driving it.
“Dulos is believed to be operating the victim’s vehicle, which is carrying the body of Jennifer Dulos and a number of other items associated with the clean-up which occurred in the garage of the residence,” according to the warrant affidavit.
Despite hundreds of hours of searches from New Canaan to Farmington to a trash plant in Hartford, state police haven’t found Farber Dulos’ body.
According to the timeline laid out by investigators, Troconis enters the picture on May 24.
After the truck returned to a Mountain Spring Road property owned by the Fore Group, Troconis told police she arrived there and saw Dulos cleaning “a coffee spill” from the front seat of the Toyota truck. But she said when he handed her the stained towels they “didn’t smell like coffee.”
Investigators later found Farber Dulos’ DNA in a swatch of fabric taken from a seat in the pickup truck that contained a “bloodlike substance,” according to the warrant affidavit.
Later on the night of May 24 Troconis was with Dulos when he allegedly drove to Albany Avenue in Hartford and threw away at least two garbage bags filled with bloody items, including a shirt that Farber Dulos was wearing earlier that day, police said.