The state has dismissed the contempt of court charges filed against Michelle Troconis.
Troconis is serving a 14-and-a-half-year sentence after a jury found her guilty of conspiring to murder Jennifer Dulos, a mother of five from New Canaan who disappeared in May 2019 and is presumed dead.
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WATCH HEREJennifer Dulos disappeared on May 24, 2019 amid a bitter divorce and custody battle with her estranged husband at the time, Fotis Dulos.
Troconis was dating Fotis Dulos when Jennifer disappeared.
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Fotis Dulos was charged with murder and denied having had anything to do with his estranged wife’s disappearance and presumed death. He died by suicide in January 2020, shortly after he was charged with murder.
Troconis was found guilty in March 2024 of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution charges and was sentenced two months.
During the trial, she was also charged with contempt of court connected to a sealed custody agreement pertaining to the Dulos’ children that she was not supposed to have in her possession. Online court records say there were two contempt of court charges.
Troconis is accused of having the agreement up on a laptop during her trial and pleaded not guilty to contempt of court.
“Today’s decision to drop the contempt charge against Michelle is a meaningful step in the right direction and the first toward justice being served. While she remains incarcerated for a crime she did not commit, this outcome acknowledges what we’ve known all along: the legal pursuit against her has gone too far. Our family remains united, stronger than ever. We will continue fighting to prove Michelle’s innocence, overturn her wrongful conviction, and bring her home,” Michelle Troconis’ family said in a statement.
Carrie Luft, a friend of Jennifer Dulos, released a statement on behalf of the family and friends of Jennifer Farber Dulos after the contempt charges were dropped.
“I am the eyewitness who brought the defendant’s actions to attention during the court session on February 15, 2024, and I gave a statement to the case inspector that evening. I know exactly what I saw. As I described in that statement, not only did the defendant display a sealed court document at a very large scale on her laptop that day, but she had also engaged in similar behavior in at least two previous court sessions, displaying information related to a witness or their testimony at a very large scale on her laptop screen. Our initial expectation was that the contempt charge would be addressed from the bench in the course of the defendant’s criminal trial,” the statement from Luft said.
“We fully support the state’s attorney’s decision to drop the contempt charge at this time. A jury trial for the contempt charge, as proposed, would be an unnecessary, no doubt lengthy, costly undertaking more than sixteen months after the fact,” the statement said. “We are indebted to state’s attorney Paul Ferencek for his thoughtful consideration of all the factors, assistant state’s attorney Liz Moran for all her work, and former case inspector David Edwards for his support. Thank you.”
Troconis’ defense team filed an appeal on the conspiring to murder conviction and that is pending.
