Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A judge has granted Fotis Dulos' former attorney's bond, allowing him to leave prison Monday to visit his ill father.
Attorney Kent Mawhinney, who has been in jail since January, charged with conspiracy to commit the murder of Dulos' estranged wife, Connecticut mom Jennifer Farber Dulos, posted bond and left state Superior Court in Stamford without comment. He has pleaded not guilty.
His bond originally had been set at $2 million, but was reduced earlier this month to $246,000, of which $50,000 is cash and the rest a real estate bond put up by his parents, after a judge granted his attorney's request.
His attorney argued in the request that he "is not a flight risk," and he needed to be released to spend time with his father in Florida before he dies.
"Mr. Mawhinney's father is currently battling lymphoma and prostate cancer, which has metastasized to his spine and his ribs," the filing read. "At age 86, it is taking its toll and limiting his daily activities substantially."
His attorneys, Lee Gold and Jeremy Donnelly, surrendered their client's passport and submitted an itinerary of his trip before his release.
Mawhinney also was fitted with a GPS monitoring device before his release.
Chief State Attorney Richard Colangelo did not object to the bond reduction or visit to Florida.
Mawhinney previously represented Dulos on several real estate deals and in a civil suit Jennifer Farbos Dulos' mother, Gloria Farber, filed, alleging that Dulos owed her millions of dollars in loans that her late husband had given him.
Mawhinney was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in January, on the same day Dulos was charged with murder, felony murder and kidnapping of his estranged wife after she was presumed dead after being missing for more than seven months.
Dulos died after an apparent suicide attempt weeks after his arrest. His lawyer, Norm Pattis, said his death did not reflect a "consciousness of guilt."
"We say it was more a conscience overborne with the weight of a world that was too busy to listen and wanted a story more than it wanted the truth," he said.
Following his death, a judge in Connecticut dropped the murder and kidnapping case against Dulos despite objections from his attorneys, who wanted to prove his innocence.
Mawhinney was present at Dulos' office May 24, the day Farber Dulos, the 51-year-old mother of Dulos' five children, went missing, and his name appeared on detailed notes taken by Dulos and his then-girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, which investigators have dubbed the "Alibi Scripts," an arrest warrant affidavit shows.
State police detectives said Dulos called Mawhinney while he and Troconis discarded garbage bags May 24, later found to contain Farber Dulos' blood, records show.
Investigators also linked Mawhinney to the discovery of what they believe was a human grave dug at a gun club in East Granby, court records show. Troconis, who has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, also has pleaded not guilty.
Troconis recently was allowed to visit her father in Florida after he had been infected with COVID-19.
