Travel issues delay case
Judge continues trial of Troconis, charged in disappearance of Farber Dulos
STAMFORD – The attorney for Michelle Troconis, charged in the May 24 disappearance of New Canaan mother Jennifer Farber Dulos, said she is in compliance with conditions of her bail, but that her recent court-approved travel was cut short due to problems with the GPS electronic monitoring device she was using.
A judge had approved Troconis’ request to leave the state for multiple days to visit a relative as long as she was monitored by state authorities. But Stamford/Norwalk State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr. said during a brief hearing Thursday in Superior Court in Stamford that she had left the state for one day and then returned, but they were not notified.
Andrew Bowman, a lawyer for Troconis, told the judge that there were issues with the electronic monitoring device Troconis was using so she returned to Connecticut.
“It was better off we have her here,” he said.
Outside the courtroom, Bowman said the signal on the GPS device was not strong enough, but that bail authorities were notified of everything.
Troconis, 44, is charged along with her boyfriend, Fotis Dulos, with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with the disappearance of Farber Dulos, a mother of five and the estranged wife of Dulos. The pair, who have pleaded not guilty, are both free on $500,000 bail.
Judge John F. Blawie continued the case to Aug. 19. He said the problems with the GPS monitoring would no longer be an issue going forward because Troconis would remain in Connecticut unless a judge’s order approves more travel.
In a court appearance earlier this month, Stamford Judge Gary B. White granted Troconis’ request to travel out of state to visit a relative through Wednesday of this week. White’s approval came with the condition that Troconis be monitored by GPS and remain in the home of the relative — an additional condition requested by Colangelo.
White also agreed to another request in the motion that Dulos be barred from contacting Troconis in any way, including through a third-party. The request by Bowman followed a motion by Dulos’ attorney, Norm Pattis, requesting that the pair be allowed to see one another.
“We have learned that Ms. Troconis believes in his innocence, and loves him still. We see no reason why the two of them should not be free to live as they see fit,“Pattis wrote in the motion.
An associate of Pattis’ was in the courtroom Thursday but did not comment.
State police investigators arrested and charged Dulos and Troconis in early June after surveillance footage gathered by Hartford police showed a man resembling Dulos throwing contractor bags filled with bloodied items in trash cans along Albany Avenue in Hartford on the same day Farber Dulos went missing, according to court records.
A woman resembling Troconis was seen in the video riding in the same truck as the man — a vehicle that investigators later connected to Dulos, court records said.
Testing showed the items in the bags contained Farber Dulos’ blood, according to those records.
Dulos is expected to appear in Stamford Superior Court on Aug. 2. On Wednesday, his lawyers filed a motion asking a judge to order Farber Dulos’ medical records be released. They believe the records contain information that may shed light on her disappearance.