Search warrants stay sealed for 90 days in Dulos case
STAMFORD — The attorney representing Fotis Dulos in the disappearance of his estranged wife does not expect any significant developments when his client appears in court on Wednesday.
Attorney Norm Pattis is expected to complain to Superior Court Judge John Blawie that he hasn’t received the bulk of the evidence the state has gathered in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.
“We received nothing from her house in New Canaan and are still awaiting on a lot of forensic evidence,” Pattis said Monday.
Search warrants in the case were recently sealed for another 90 days. The search warrants, likely executed at multiple locations and on evidence, including Fotis Dulos’ cellphone, have been shielded from public view since the investigation began .
Blawie is expected to review a report filed by the probation office indicating Fotis Dulos has been compliant with all the terms of his release on $1 million bond, including the electronic monitoring device he is required to wear has been properly charged.
In September, Blawie ordered Fotis Dulos to court after the defendant allowed the battery on the device to dip below 25 percent at least four times in the previous weeks.
Fotis Dulos, 52, and his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, have each pleaded not guilty to two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the May 24 disappearance.
Pattis said he does not know whether Blawie will issue a ruling Wednesday on his motion to dismiss the charges against his client. Stamford State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo stated his opposition to the dismissal during the last pretrial hearing on Oct. 4. Colangelo contends the motion should be denied because a judge has already determined there is enough evidence by granting a warrant for Fotis Dulos’ arrest.
Police have not released updates on the investigation since Blawie issued a gag order in September. Pattis has filed his 40page appeal of the gag order with the state Supreme Court, claiming it infringes on his client’s right to free speech and to a fair trial.
Appellate attorneys for the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney have until Nov. 12 to file their brief in opposition of the appeal. The court is also allowing the Hartford Courant to file an amicus brief supporting Pattis’ appeal. Arguments in the case will be heard on Dec. 9.
Blawie imposed the order at the request of Colangelo after Pattis made several highly publicized statements about Jennifer Dulos and the pending cases against his client.
Most notably, Pattis said his defense team was investigating whether Jennifer Dulos purposely vanished to get back at her husband much like the novel "Gone Girl," by Gillian Flynn.
Pattis has also publicly questioned whether Jennifer Dulos was seriously ill based on $14,000 worth of medical bills his client received in the months leading up to her disappearance and suggested she could have perpetrated a “revenge suicide” plot.
Pattis also claimed Troconis passed a polygraph test, which Colangelo contends was never administered.
Despite the gag order, Pattis has recently renewed his request for Jennifer Dulos’ medical records, which he claims would show she was receiving “reproductive services” at a New York facility.
Jennifer Dulos, 51, was last seen on a neighbor’s security camera returning home around 8:05 a.m. May 24 after dropping off her five children at a nearby school.
Police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” when she arrived at her Welles Lane home, where they found evidence that she was the victim of a “serious physical assault” based on blood stains and spatter in the garage, according to arrest warrants.
Colangelo said Fotis Dulos’ DNA was also found mixed with his wife’s blood on the faucet of her kitchen sink.
Fotis Dulos and Troconis were initially charged a week after the disappearance when police discovered video footage of two people resembling them in Hartford around the time Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, according to arrest warrants. The footage showed Fotis Dulos dumping bags that were later determined to contain his wife’s blood and clothing, arrest warrants state.
Fotis Dulos and Troconis were arrested in September on a second tampering with evidence charge related to cleaning up a pickup truck police say was involved in the disappearance, according to the latest warrants.
According to the warrants, Fotis Dulos drove a pickup truck belonging to one of his employees to and from New Canaan on May 24 . Police said Fotis Dulos and Troconis took the vehicle to be washed in the days after the disappearance. Fotis Dulos also urged the employee to remove the seats, which the man did and turned over to investigators who found Jennifer Dulos’ blood on one of them, according to arrest warrants.
Fotis Dulos, 52, and his former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, have each pleaded not guilty to two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the May 24 disappearance on Jennifer Dulos.