Fotis Dulos' Lawyers Banned From Talking About The Jennifer Dulos Case Until 2060

Fotis Dulos’ defense team has been banned from talking about the Jennifer Dulos case for the next four decades.

As part of a settlement approved in probate court on Tuesday, Fotis’ former criminal defense lawyers Norm Pattis and Kevin Smith can not talk about the case for the next 40 years, the Connecticut Post reports.

Jennifer vanished in May 2019 amid a contentious divorce and child custody battle with Fotis. Fotis was brought up on murder charges before he died by suicide in January 2020. 

The approved settlements ended lawsuits filed by both Jennifer’s family and Fotis’ estate. 

“The heirs of the estate were very concerned about confidentiality,” lawyer Christopher Hug, administrator of the estate of Fotis Dulos, told Probate Judge Evelyn Daly, hence the ordered 40 years of silence.

Both Pattis and Smith now cannot discuss any evidence or opinions on Fotis Dulos, Jennifer Dulos, or any of their immediate family. Furthermore, they are not allowed to discuss the alleged co-defendants in the case, Fotis’ former girlfriend Michelle Troconis and his former lawyer Kent Mawhinney. They have both been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the case; both have pleaded not guilty. Fotis and Troconis were allegedly caught on video together disposing of evidence  — including zip ties that police believe were used to incapacitate Jennifer before she was killed — into trash cans around Hartford.

The attorneys are required to turn over any files, documents and evidence or from their representation of Fotis within 30 days of the settlement’s approval, according to the Connecticut Post.

Pattis and Smith are also banned from “providing recollections, or writings, appearing for interviews, and/or cooperating or providing information directly or indirectly related to any book, magazine article, television or film production or any other type of media publication,” the decision, obtained by the Connecticut Post reports. 

The terms of the non-disclosure of the decision are in effect until 2060.

The two lawyers were also told by the judge to return $137,000 of the $250,000 retainer that Fotis paid them before his death, WABC reports.

Pattis didn’t immediately respond to Oxygen.com’s request for comment on Thursday.

While his client was still alive, he put forward the controversial theory that Jennifer staged her own disappearance. He pointed to the fact that Jennifer, a writer, had written a book with a similar plot to Gillian Flynn’s 2012 novel “Gone Girl," which tells the story of a woman who fakes her own disappearance in order to frame her husband. It’s a theory that family and friends consistently denounced.