Husband of missing Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos wants charges dropped against girlfriend
NEW CANAAN, Connecticut -- The estranged husband of a Connecticut mother of five who has been missing for more than a month wants charges against his girlfriend dropped so she can testify on his behalf.
Jennifer Dulos, 50, was last seen driving a 2017 black Chevrolet Suburban shortly after dropping her kids off at school in New Canaan on Friday, May 24.
Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend, 44-year-old Michelle Troconis, are charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and hindering prosecution, and both have pleaded not guilty.
Troconis, 44, and her lawyer, Andrew Bowman, went before a Connecticut Superior Court judge to request permission for Troconis to travel to a friend's home in New York state between June 30 and July 17, which was granted, though she will be under a sort of house arrest at the property under GPS monitoring.
Bowman also asked the judge to remind Fotis Dulos that he's not allowed to contact Troconis, and the judge agreed to issue a no-contact order designed to keep Fotis Dulos and his attorney away from her.
It is not a new restriction, but the judge also told Traconis not to contact Fotis Dulos -- and made her answer that she affirmatively understood.
On Thursday, Fotis Dulos' lawyer, Norman Pattis, said he wants the judge to drop all charges against Troconis so she can help Fotis Dulos in his defense.
"Michelle provides Fotis a complete alibi for the morning of Ms. Dulos' disappearance," he said Thursday. "Yet most likely she will not testify so long as the state presses its merit-less claims against her. We are calling on the state to drop the charges against Michelle so that she is available to testify in Fotis' defense. We're asking that the charges against her be dropped so that she can feel free to testify without fearing the consequences."
Earlier this week, Fotis Dulos spoke out following a court appearance in the custody battle for the children, who are currently being cared for by Jennifer Dulos' mother.
"I just want to tell my children that they're constantly on my mind and that I love them and I miss them very much," Fotis Dulos said after court.
Previous court documents revealed that clothing and sponges soaked with Jennifer Dulos' blood were found in trash cans in Hartford, where surveillance cameras captured a male appearing to be Fotis Dulos wearing a baseball cap and disposing of garbage bags in more than 30 different receptacles along a four mile stretch of Albany Avenue.
