Attorney for Fotis Dulos files to have charges dismissed

Click here for updates on this story

    STAMFORD, CT (WFSB) — As awaits a trial and remains on house arrest, Fotis Dulos, via his attorney, is looking to have all of his charges dismissed.

Dulos, a man at the center of his estranged wife’s disappearance, was charged with murder on Tuesday.

Jennifer Farber Dulos, his estranged wife and the mother of his five children vanished on May 24, 2019.

In addition to murder, he’s charged with felony murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and hindering prosecution.

The day after Dulos was charged with murder, his attorney Norm Pattis filed a motion to have all charges dropped.

The reason, Pattis cites in the filing, is because Dulos was arraigned on the “basis of the information, not a grand jury indictment.”

In the motion filed, Pattis cites the Fifth Amendment, which says, in part, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.”

However, under state law in Connecticut, charges are not based on grand juries, rather they’re brought forward based on complaints and information.

Even on the day he filed the motion to dismiss, Pattis said he liked their odds if they went to trial.

“We are relieved by what we see in the warrant, sort of startled by the state changed its theory mid course, from one of trying to end the divorce, to trying to take financial advantage of the children’s trust. If the state can’t figure out what its trying to do after so many months it had to investigate this case, I don’t know how a jury will make a decision in the 4-6 weeks it will take to try this case,” Pattis said.

In the motion, Pattis goes on to say the state’s treatment of Dulos “has been hasty and oppressive—the hallmarks of an intimidating power.”

The first warrant, issued back in June, detailed how Fotis and his then-girlfriend Michelle Troconis allegedly dumped trash bags with Jennifer Dulos’ blood on them in more than 30 dumpsters throughout Hartford. Surveillance cameras recorded that happening, by what appeared to be the couple.

The trash bags were then brought to a trash facility, which prompted a weeks-long search there.

A new warrant, released after Dulos was charged with murder, says someone in a hood and dark clothing was seen riding a distinctive bike, one similar to a bike Fotis had, in the area of Jennifer’s New Canaan home the morning she disappeared.

In the second warrant, which was issued in early September, state police said they believed Fotis Dulos was “lying in wait” at Jennifer Dulos’ New Canaan home the day she went missing.

As for the motion to dismiss the charges, attorney and legal analyst Ryan McGuigan said while it’s a long shot, “I’ve filed a few myself and had them all denied. There are certain portions of an indictment you can dismiss, but this particular motion seems like window dressing, because its a decision for the Supreme Court of the United States to decide that particular issue.”

There is no word on when the judge will rule on the motion.

Fotis Dulos is expected back in court late next month.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.