The high-profile attorney representing Jennifer Dulos’ estranged husband will seek a “substantial bond reduction” Tuesday because he claims there is no evidence connecting his client to the disappearance.
Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, are expected to plead not guilty Tuesday when they are arraigned in state Superior Court in Stamford on tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges.
Troconis has been free on bail, while Fotis Dulos has been jailed at the Bridgeport Correctional Center on $500,000 bond.
But that could soon change, according to his new attorney Norm Pattis.
Pattis, a controversial New Haven lawyer who represents Infowars host Alex Jones and was condemned for racial Facebook posts, said the state lacks evidence connecting his client to the crime.
“There are powerful reasons to doubt he was even at the scene of his estranged wife’s home the day she disappeared,” Pattis said in a statement after meeting with his client for the first time on Monday. “I am unaware of any evidence supporting the theory he was involved in foul play.”
Pattis also said Troconis was not in New Canaan on May 24 when Jennifer Dulos disappeared.
“I’m told by people with information that the girlfriend was never at the New Canaan home that day — the day the wife went missing — and that she can prove she never was there and that law enforcement may be satisfied,” Pattis said Monday on WPLR’s “Chaz & AJ” radio show. “That is a very significant fact in this case.”
Since being released on bail last Monday, Troconis has met with investigators at least twice, but claims to have no idea where to find Jennifer Dulos, a law enforcement source told the Hartford Courant.
Jennifer Dulos was last seen around 8 a.m. May 24 when she dropped off her five children at New Canaan Country School. After missing several doctors appointments, she was reported missing around 7 p.m. that night.
Around the same time, Fotis Dulos and Troconis were seen on video tossing garbage bags in more than 30 receptacles in a four-mile stretch in Hartford, according to their arrest warrants. The bags contained Jennifer Dulos’ blood on them, the warrants said.
Police said they found Jennifer Dulos’ Chevy Suburban abandoned on Lapham Road near Waveny Park, a few miles from her Welles Lane home, soon after she was reported missing.
Police said they also found blood spatter and signs of a “serious physical assault” inside Jennifer Dulos’ garage.
Since the disappearance, authorities have focused their searches on Waveny Park, a Hartford garbage dump and the properties connected to Fotis Dulos’ custom homebuilding company, the Fore Group.
Police searched a metal dumpster last week outside a New Canaan home developed by the Fore Group. Neighbors of 61 Sturbridge Hill Road said they were woken up by the loud sounds of metal banging in the predawn hours the morning after Jennifer Dulos went missing.
Police have also made several visits to 4 Jefferson Crossing in Farmington, where Fotis Dulos lived with Troconis and her daughter after Jennifer Dulos and her children moved out when she filed for divorce in 2017.
Drone footage showed Troconis leading investigators on Friday into the wooded area behind the Farmington home that leads to the West Hartford Reservoir.
Troconis’ attorney, Andrew Bowman, has declined to comment about the case.
Pattis replaced Eugene Riccio, who represented Fotis Dulos at his first court appearance last week. Three teams of attorneys who have represented Fotis Dulos in his divorce case, which is scheduled for a hearing in Stamford family court on Tuesday, and a civil lawsuit filed by his mother-in-law have petitioned to be removed from the proceedings in recent days.
Pattis took on a similar case in 2015 when he represented Jennifer Valiante, the girlfriend of Kyle Navin, who is serving 55 years in prison for killing his parents, Jeffrey and Jeannette. Valiante cooperated with authorities and was sentenced to eight years for her role in the killings.
Like the Dulos case, authorities conducted a massive search for the Navins, including at landfills as investigators have been doing for the past week in Hartford.
New Canaan police have created a website dedicated to the Jennifer Dulos case. Police said they have received more than 300 tips and about 75 responses to their request for security video footage.