STAMFORD, Conn. _ In his first public comment since the disappearance of his estranged wife, Jennifer Farber Dulos, Fotis Dulos said his children are "constantly" on his mind and he loves and misses them.
The comments came after a contentious hearing Wednesday in the case of the custody of the five children, who range in age from 8 and 13 years old, at family court in Stamford. The hearing focused largely on a confidential psychological report that Dulos' attorney wants unsealed.
His attorney, Norm Pattis, also told a judge that he has offered to have his client sit down with prosecutors and discuss his estranged wife's state of mind in the weeks before she disappeared.
Pattis told Judge Donna Heller during the hearing that there is evidence that Jennifer Farber Dulos was distraught over a custody report that was favorable to his client and criticized her, and that she may have had undisclosed health problems.
After the hearing, in his first public comments since Jennifer Farber Dulos went missing, he said, "Tell my children they are constantly on my mind and that I love them and miss them very much."
The status hearing before Judge Donna Heller in the two-year divorce proceedings and custody battle was called for by the court-appointed guardian ad litem of the children, Attorney Michael Meehan. Meehan on Tuesday filed a motion accusing Pattis of violating a court order when he commented publicly about parts of the sealed custody report and psychological evaluation completed for the couple's divorce case _ the file that Pattis seeks to have unsealed.
In another motion filed by Pattis on Tuesday, he wrote that Dulos found a copy of the report in his Farmington home after he was released on bail and after at least one search of the home by state police investigators.
"It is the undersigned's belief that Ms. Dulos was aware of the contents of the report, made statements about its recommendations to Mr. Dulos, and that she acted in accordance with her stated intention to do anything within her power to see to it that he was deprived of their children's companionship," Pattis said.
During the hearing, an attorney for Farber Dulos said he was appalled that Dulos had the report, which should not have been in his possession.
Pattis, in a motion seeking custody of the children, asked for the report to be unsealed. Heller instead ordered that all the copies of the report be given to Meehan. Heller told Pattis that he can view the report at court and take notes, but only in the presence of Meehan.
Attorney Reuben Midler who represents Farber Dulos, attacked the veracity of the report, saying that it would not hold up in family court and was completed by an expert that would not be able to testify in family court. Heller said that the report would have no impact on her ruling.
Along with the report, Pattis has also said he discovered a 17-year-old manuscript written by Farber Dulos that was similar to the popular novel "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, which is about a woman who fakes her disappearance and sets up her husband as the suspect.
This disclosure by Pattis was strongly rebuffed by the family and friends of Farber Dulos, who said the manuscript was nothing like Pattis described.
Following this public comment by Pattis on the manuscript, Meehan asked for a status hearing in the custody case, saying that Pattis violated a court order meant to safeguard the children.
"The purpose of the court entering this order was to protect the emotional and psychological well-being of the minor children," Meehan wrote in the motion.
The children are living with Farber Dulos' mother in New York, where they have been since she went missing on May 24. The grandmother, Gloria Farber, has been seeking custody of the children through probate court.
The hearing comes a day after police said they would stop a weeks-long search of a Hartford trash-to-energy plant for evidence in the disappearance of Farber Dulos. Investigators first visited the plant on Maxim Road earlier this month after a man believed to be Dulos was seen throwing out bags along a stretch of Albany Avenue the night Farber Dulos went missing, court records show.
Investigators said some of the bags contained items with Farber Dulos' blood on them. Officials said trash from that area is taken to the Hartford plant. Following this discovery, Dulos and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. Both were freed on bail.
Despite calling off the search of the plant, New Canaan police said the case remains "very active" and dozens of investigators are still working on it.
