Jennifer Dulos case: Judge grants Troconis last-minute hearing

Michelle Troconis, charged in connection with the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, enters the Connecticut Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. with her father, Carlos Troconis on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. Michelle Troconis, charged in connection with the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, enters the Connecticut Superior Court in Norwalk, Conn. with her father, Carlos Troconis on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Jennifer Dulos case: Judge grants Troconis last-minute hearing 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD — Less than a week before she was due to appear in court on criminal charges, Michelle Troconis was granted a status hearing on short notice.

Judge John Blawie granted defense attorney Andrew Bowman’s request for the hearing, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at state Superior Court in Stamford — just hours after co-defendant Fotis Dulos will appear for his own criminal proceedings.

Troconis was originally due to appear in court on Oct. 10 on two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of hindering prosecution in connection with the May 24 disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.

It was not immediately known why Bowman requested the status conference.

Brittany Paz, a defense attorney and former associate of Fotis Dulos’ lawyer Norm Pattis, said a status hearing can mean any number of things. However, she pointed out that a hearing scheduled on such short notice could have something to do with Troconis’ conditions of release.

“Either the state wants to be heard on some alleged violation or the defense wants to be heard on some modification,” Paz said.

Troconis and Fotis Dulos are each required to wear GPS monitoring devices as part of the conditions for their release. Last month, Fotis Dulos was issued a warning for failing to properly charge his GPS device.

Both defendants are also banned from leaving the state. In June, Troconis was granted permission to leave the state for about three weeks, but returned after just one day when her GPS device malfunctioned.

The two were arrested on tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges about a week after Jennifer Dulos disappeared. New Canaan police said in arrest warrants that two people resembling Fotis Dulos and Troconis were caught on video in Hartford the night of the disappearance. Fotis Dulos was also seen dumping bags that were later found to contain his wife’s blood and clothing, according to arrest warrants.

Police said Jennifer Dulos was the victim of a “serious physical assault” based on blood evidence found in the garage of her New Canaan home.

New arrest warrants released last month provided a detailed timeline tracing Fotis Dulos’ movements the morning of the disappearance.

According to the warrants, police believe Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” when Jennifer Dulos arrived home from dropping off their children at school around 8:05 a.m. on May 24.

Police said Fotis Dulos used a former employee’s pickup truck to drive to and from New Canaan that day. Police said he then urged the employee to swap out the seats of the truck and had the vehicle washed and detailed several days after the disappearance.

The employee eventually removed the seats, but turned them over to investigators who found Jennifer Dulos’ blood on one of them, the arrest warrants state.

Last week, Troconis was deposed by lawyers representing Jennifer Dulos’ mother, Gloria Farber, as a part of $2.5 million civil lawsuits filed against Fotis Dulos. Lawyers sought to gain information regarding Fotis Dulos’ dealings with his business, the Fore Group.

The deposition lasted 45 minutes at attorney Richard Weinstein’s West Hartford office and provided little new information, since Troconis invoked her Fifth Amendment rights in response to each of the lawyer’s questions.