Jennifer Dulos case: Fotis warned about comments, Troconis pleads not guilty to latest charge

Fotis Dulos arrives Friday at the Stamford courthouse. Fotis Dulos arrives Friday at the Stamford courthouse. Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close Jennifer Dulos case: Fotis warned about comments, Troconis pleads not guilty to latest charge 1 / 53 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD — A judge warned Fotis Dulos on Friday about the “binding” restrictions of the gag order in his case and said he will further review the defense’s request to dismiss the charges.

State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo said Fotis Dulos’ comments about his estranged wife’s mental health to Proto Thema, a news weekly and website in Athens, where he was raised, was a “clear contradiction” of the court’s gag order.

Defense attorney Kevin Smith, an associate of Norm Pattis, who had a scheduling conflict and did not attend the pre-trial hearing, said Fotis Dulos’ answers had been reviewed and cleared counsel before being submitted to the blog.

But Superior Court Judge John Blawie saw it differently.

“There are exceptions...but I don’t see how the statements about his missing estranged wife’s mental status fall under one of the exceptions,” Blawie said.

Blawie issued a warning to Fotis Dulos and reminded him the gag order is “binding” unless it’s overturned by the Supreme Court. The state’s highest court will hear Pattis’ appeal of the gag order in December.

READ MORE: The case against Fotis Dulos and Michelle Troconis

READ MORE: Legal expert: Prosecution telling Fotis Dulos ‘we’re coming after you’

READ MORE: Tracing Fotis Dulos’ movements the day Jennifer Dulos vanished

READ MORE: The route Fotis Dulos could have taken from Waveny to Welles Lane

Fotis Dulos, 52, and Michelle Troconis, 44, have each been charged with two counts of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the May 24 disappearance of Jennifer Dulos.

Troconis pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon to the latest tampering with evidence charge during a brief appearance, which was momentarily stalled by a false fire alarm. She will return to court Oct. 25.

As Smith continued to push Friday for the charges against his client to be dismissed, Colangelo asked the judge to summarily deny the motion since an arrest warrant was issued and therefore could not be dismissed.

“I don’t know why we are wasting time here,” Colangelo said. “We can go back and forth with hyperbole all we want, but there was a warrant issued in this case, his motion to dismiss should be denied.”

Blawie, however, allowed the defense to speak on the motion.

Smith argued for the criminal case to be dismissed, saying the hindering prosecution charge can’t stick because there is no underlying or “predicate” felony charge.

“There is no construction liberal or otherwise that can sustain this information, because what this information charges is a hindering charge, that requires some other felony. And that is what is not present here,” Smith said.

Smith claimed the law is “unconstitutional” when applied to tampering with evidence charges facing his client. He said Fotis Dulos could not have tampered with evidence, because there had been “no investigation instituted” and “no proceedings, which were in the offing” prior to his alleged actions on the night of May 24.

“There was no notice and that’s required under the statute,” Smith said. “We think this is an instance where the state has no clothes on. The state is telling you it has these things, and simply because it has charged them and created more of an investigative detention situation while they hope to get information for other charges. It is nonetheless a situation where they don’t have what they claim to have.”

Blawie said he will review the arguments and revisit the issue when Fotis Dulos returns to court on Nov. 6.

While Smith made a motion with his hand to signal his lips were sealed to the media outside the courthouse, Fotis Dulos stopped to briefly send a message to his children as he has done following previous court appearances.

“I love my children,” he said. “I miss them and I think about them all the time.”

The charges against Fotis Dulos and Troconis mostly hinge on video evidence of two people resembling them in Hartford the night of the disappearance and of a Toyota pickup truck belonging to a former Fore Group employee that was seen in New Canaan the morning Jennifer Dulos vanished, according to arrest warrants.

The Hartford footage also showed the man who resembled Fotis Dulos dumping bags that were later found to contain his wife’s blood and clothing, arrest warrants said. Fotis Dulos’ DNA was also found mixed with his wife’s blood on the faucet of her kitchen sink, Colangelo said.

The former Fore Group employee whose truck police say was used in connection with the disappearance told investigators Fotis Dulos pressured him into removing the seats and even took the vehicle to be washed and detailed without his knowledge, arrest warrants said. The man turned the seats over to investigators, who found Jennifer Dulos’ blood on one of them, arrest warrants said.

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.