During a contentious court appearance on Friday, August 9, one of the lawyers representing Fotis Dulos claimed that his client’s missing wife, Jennifer, took thousands of dollars from Fotis’ accounts before she vanished.
The claim came as Norm Pattis, the same lawyer who defended controversial radio show host Alex Jones in his defamation case, asked a judge to ignore privacy rules and review Jennifer’s medical records.
The prosecution objected to Pattis’ wishes, according to CBS New York.
Pattis has claimed that the medical records will back up his theory that Jennifer faked her own disappearance. Pattis first suggested to the New York Post in June that Jennifer may have staged her disappearance, claiming she once wrote a book manuscript with a similar plot to Gillian Flynn’s 2012 novel “Gone Girl.” That novel, which was also turned into a movie, is about a woman who fakes her own death to frame her husband. Pattis admits he never read the supposed 500-page manuscript, but said “this is a person who has a pretty florid imagination and motives to use it to hurt Mr. Dulos.”
A spokesperson for Jennifer’s family and friends denounced the suggestion.
The Friday court episode was reportedly a heated one. During the quest to retrieve the medical documents, Pattis said Jennifer took hundreds of thousands of dollars from her husband before she disappeared.
"There’s a lot that I could say and haven’t said. For example, we’re aware of a lot of missing money that was taken from Mr. Dulos’ accounts by Jennifer. I haven’t gone to the press with that,” Pattis said, according to CBS New York.
Jennifer disappeared on May 24 not long after dropping off her kids at New Canaan Country School. She and Fotis had five children together. Two of her friends reported her missing after she didn't show for appointments.
Fotis, 51 and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, 44, have been charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution. They can allegedly be seen on video disposing of garbage bags, some of which contained bloody clothing, in trash receptacles. Police also said they found blood spatter and evidence of cleanup attempts at Jennifer's New Canaan home, according to the arrest warrants. They have pleaded not guilty and are out on bond.
Fotis was embroiled in a heated custody battle with Jennifer before vanished. He was also involved in three lawsuits with Jennifer’s mom, Gloria Farber, who claims Fotis has failed to pay her back approximately $2 million he borrowed from her for his real estate development company. The Farber family filed the lawsuits in 2018.