Troconis’ lawyer seeks to discredit police interviews
STAMFORD – The lawyer representing Michelle Troconis for her alleged involvement in the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos in May 2019 is accusing Troconis’ former lawyer of mishandling the situation when he was in charge. It is one of several arguments Jon Schoenhorn has made seeking to throw out three interviews Troconis did with state police investigators.
Schoenhorn argued on Friday during pre-trial proceedings that police and prosecutors engaged in a “scheme” to intimidate his client into providing information on the whereabouts of Dulos, who disappeared from her New Canaan home and is presumed dead.
Judge Kevin Randolph said he would watch the third interview early next week and would hear oral arguments from Schoenhorn and Assistant State’s Attorney Sean McGuinness on Wednesday on whether or not that interview can be used as evidence.
Schoenhorn says the interviews were done without a Spanish-speaking interpreter, and Troconis speaks English as second language. The state prosecutors are seeking to have all the interviews introduced at the trial.
McGuinness noted that Troconis was a college graduate, earning a degree in Venezuela, and he indicated she was proficient in English.
Schoenhorn, cross-examining then-Connecticut State Police Detective John Kimball, honed in on the tactics used by police and prosecutors before, during and after Troconis’ arrest.
Troconis has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of conspiracy to tamper with physical evidence, two counts of tampering with physical evidence and second-degree hindering prosecution. Police say she aided Fotis Dulos in the disposal of evidence connected with Jennifer Dulos’ murder, and authorities claim surveillance footage captured Troconis sitting in the front seat of Fotis Dulos’ pickup truck as he dumped bags of evidence in Hartford.
The defense lawyer presented a narrative of the police procedures that could garner sympathy for Troconis and cast law enforcement and prosecutors in a negative light in the upcoming trial. He called them “coercive techniques.”
Schoenhorn said a “body search warrant” was served on Troconis in late May of 2019, and she was driven at night, far from her home in Farmington, to the State Police barracks in Litchfield, where she was photographed undressed in her underwear. “There was no basis for a strip search,” the defense attorney said. “The strip search they did on her was humiliating.”
Kimball indicated the use of “full body photographs” of suspects, in his description, was standard procedure in majorcase investigations. “It’s not a strip search, it’s photographs,” he said.
Troconis’ mother took the stand to describe the day before her daughter was arrested. Marisela Arreaza said state police officers in plain clothes had followed her, Troconis and her 12year-old daughter, all day long, including trips for lunch, ice cream and a movie.
State police eventually went to the hotel in Avon where Arreaza and Troconis were staying, and Troconis was placed under arrest and handcuffed shortly before midnight on June 1. Troconis was in her pajamas at the time, her mother said, and she was detained in front of her daughter by police. “She was calling for her mother, she was very anxious, she was crying loudly,” said Arreaza.
The conduct of police and prosecutors will be scrutinized as to whether it was intended to “overcome or overawe her will,” in legal terminology, and how that impacted her behavior in the videotaped interviews with state police. The defense lawyer is presenting a pattern of conduct by police and prosecutors meant to intimidate Troconis into speaking with police.
Schoenhorn is also looking to call attention to the moves made by Troconis’ first lawyer, Andrew Bowman. Schoenhorn is maintaining that the lawyer, Bowman, mishandled the initial interactions with police and allowed her to sign a “notice of waiver of rights,” then speak with investigators following her arrest.
McGuinness emphasized that Bowman had over 40 years of legal experience in the field of criminal law.
Jennifer Dulos’ body has never been found. Fotis Dulos died by suicide in January 2020, three weeks after he was charged with murder.
The pre-trial hearing will continue Monday at 10 a.m. The trial is scheduled to be held in January.