The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Lawyer: Troconis not allowed to get belongings
The attorney representing Michelle Troconis says his client has not been allowed to retrieve personal belongings from her former boyfriend’s home.
Christopher Hug, an attorney who was appointed by the Farmington Probate Court to be the administrator for Fotis Dulos’ estate, has prevented Troconis from taking her items from the Jefferson Crossing property, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Hug has gone to “extraordinary steps to interfere with the ability of Ms. Troconis to retrieve her property from a separate location where he has no legal interest,” said her attorney Jon Schoenhorn, who is arguing that Hug should be removed as administrator.
Troconis lived with Fotis Dulos for nearly two years at his home at 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington as he was going through a prolonged divorce and custody battle with his wife, Jennifer Dulos, who vanished on May 24, 2019.
Fotis Dulos died Jan. 30 from an apparent suicide while facing murder and other charges associated with the death and disappearance of his estranged wife. Jennifer Dulos has been presumed dead by police based on blood evidence found in the garage of her New Canaan home where they say she was attacked, according to arrest warrants.
Troconis is on house arrest while facing conspiracy to commit murder, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges in the case. Kent Mawhinney, a former attorney for Fotis Dulos, is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and is scheduled to appear in court next week.
Hug was appointed administrator of Fotis Dulos’ estate in February. In probate court documents, Hug said the estate had very few assets.
Several creditors have since foreclosed on properties owned by Fore Group, Fotis Dulos’ high-end real estate development company.
In June, a state Superior Court judge in Hartford ruled the estate owed Jennifer Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber, $1.9 million for unpaid loans to the Fore Group. Farber has been caring for the five Dulos children since her daughter disappeared.
A representative for the five children was allowed access to the Jefferson Crossing home last month to retrieve their belongings, while Troconis has not been afforded the same opportunity, Schoenhorn said.
“Mr. Hug has interfered with the orderly and lawful transfer” of Troconis’ property, “despite production to him of proof of ownership, while demanding an unreasonable degree of exactitude,” Schoenhorn said in documents filed with the probate court seeking Hug's dismissal.
The denial only benefits Hug’s financial interests by “creating unnecessary and almost ludicrous hurdles over Ms. Troconis’ personal property without justification, while seeking to pad his own fees and insisting on litigating trivial sums,” Schoenhorn added.
According to Schoenhorn, Troconis is seeking a weight bench valued at $283, some glasses purchased at Home Goods and items belonging to her daughter, including Legos and video games. Hug refused to release the weight bench even though Troconis provided documentation that it had been bought with her Amazon account, court documents said.
Hug also told Troconis and Schoenhorn during a meeting about her personal belongings that she would have to seek permission from the real estate agent trying to sell 80 Mountain Spring Road, one of the Fore Group properties that is in foreclosure, to get furniture she owns that may be at that location, according to the court documents.
But Schoenhorn contends, when he received permission from the attorney representing the bank in the foreclosure, Hug sent an email to the real estate agent denying Troconis any right to retrieve her furniture.
In an email, Hug told the real estate agent to “shut down” any effort to remove the items “immediately,” according to Schoenhorn’s court documents.
“We do not agree to the disposal of the contents of 80 Mountain Spring in whole, or in part at this time,” Hug wrote in the email, according to Schoenhorn’s documents.
Schoenhorn wants Hug removed as administrator due to “conflicts of interest and multiple violations of his fiduciary obligations to the estate and its heirs.”