A Stamford Superior Court judge on Thursday reduced the bond of Kent Mawhinney, the lawyer who lives in South Windsor and is facing charges of raping his wife and conspiring with the late Fotis Dulos to murder Dulos’ wife, Jennifer Farber Dulos.
According to Judge John F. Blawie’s order, Kent Mawhinney can be released after posting a bond of $246,000, reduced from the $2 million bond he has been held on since his arrest in January, so that he can visit his ailing father in Florida.
Mawhinney, 55, was charged Jan. 7 with conspiracy to commit murder in the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos from her home in New Canaan. Fotis Dulos, and Dulos’ former girlfriend Michelle Troconis were also charged in the murder.
Jennifer Farber Dulos has been missing since May 24, 2019 and is presumed dead, although her body has never been found.
According to the judge’s order, Mawhinney’s newly reduced bond will be posted using a combination of cash and real estate. Mawhinney will have to post $50,000 in cash, and will cover the rest of the bond with a home owned by his parents in Manchester, which is worth $196,000, according to the order.
Once released, Mawhinney will have to surrender his passport. He will be allowed to travel to Florida to visit his father but won’t be allowed to go anywhere else outside Connecticut without permission, according to the judge’s order.
In addition, while Mawhinney is free on bond he will have to wear a GPS monitoring device that will track his whereabouts.
Mawhinney hasn’t been released yet, and a date hasn’t been set for him to be brought to the courthouse to post the bond.
According to state police, when questioned about the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos, Mawhinney’s answers were vague, evasive, self-contradictory, and suspicious.
During a police interview last June, Mawhinney said he had suffered a concussion in a fall down a set of stairs a month earlier, May 25, 2019, which was the day after Jennifer Dulos disappeared, according to state police. Mawhinney also said the fall had damaged his cellphone’s screen, forcing him to replace the phone, state police reported.
But investigators obtained his cellphone records for a 7½-month period that included Jennifer Dulos disappearance. They found that the records were consistent with Mawhinney being at the office of Dulos’ development company, the Fore Group, which was at Dulos’ Farmington home, from 7:29 a.m. to 8:22 a.m. May 24, 2019, according to state police.
That is consistent with Mawhinney’s statement that he was at Dulos’ Farmington property around that time, which was when Jennifer Dulos disappeared in New Canaan, a state police detective adds in the affidavit.
The state police affidavit supporting Mawhinney’s arrest also details the discovery of what was suspected to be a shallow grave on the East Granby property of the Windsor Rod and Gun Club, which Mawhinney had founded, but since left. Although state police found the suspected grave, which a club member had described to them, police dogs “could locate no sign of human remains,” state police reported.
In addition to the murder conspiracy case, which is in Stamford Superior Court, Mawhinney is still facing charges in Hartford Superior Court that he raped his wife and later violated a family violence protective order in that case. His bonds in those two cases are $500 each, online court records show.