The State of Connecticut on Wednesday dropped criminal contempt charges against Michelle Troconis, who’s already serving more than 14 years for helping plot the murder of her then-boyfriend’s estranged wife, Jennifer Farber Dulos.
During her trial, which ended with the March 2024 guilty verdict, Troconis allegedly displayed on her laptop, in “about 70-point font,” a sealed custody report detailing the battle between the two spouses over their five kids, family friend Carrie Luft reported to court officials.
The sealed document was visible to Troconis’ defense team as well as the press, the public and livestream viewers. It wasn’t clear how Troconis had obtained the 2019 report.
Court officials reviewed YouTube footage and charged Troconis with criminal contempt of court, a misdemeanor, on the same day she was convicted of helping her boyfriend execute and cover up his wife’s murder.
Troconis had pleaded not guilty to the contempt charges.
In a statement to WVIT, her family called the dismissal a “meaningful step in the right direction,” proving their assertion that “the legal pursuit against her has gone too far.” Troconis is appealing her conviction for conspiracy to commit murder.
Farber Dulos’ friends and family also welcomed the decision.
“We fully support the state’s attorney’s decision to drop the contempt charge at this time,” Luft said in a statement on their behalf. “A jury trial for the contempt charge, as proposed, would be an unnecessary, no doubt lengthy, costly undertaking more than 16 months after the fact.”
Farber Dulos disappeared on May 24, 2019, after dropping her children off at school in New Canaan, Conn. Her body was never found, though a probate judge declared her legally dead in 2023.
Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, was initially arrested in June 2019, along with Troconis, and charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. Surveillance video had shown them driving around Hartford on the days after the disappearance, ditching items into random trash cans.
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Erik Trautmann/AP Fotis Dulos, center, and his attorneys Norm Pattis, left and Chris La Tronica appear for a probable cause hearing in Stamford Superior Court on Jan. 23, 2020. (Erik Trautmann/AP)
Investigators eventually recovered several of the items, which prosecutors said included zip ties, plastic ponchos and blood-stained clothing. Farber Dulos’ blood was also found on a seat in the truck her husband was driving that day.
Dulos was arrested again in January 2020 and charged with his wife’s kidnapping and murder. He committed suicide shortly thereafter while out on bail and never faced trial.
With News Wire Services
