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Kent Mawhinney, accused accomplice in Jennifer Farber Dulos murder case, loses custody of children as he sits in jail

Attorney Kent Mawhinney is arraigned on conspiracy to commit murder charges in the case of missing mother of five, Jennifer Dulos, in Stamford Superior Court Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, in Stamford, Conn.  Jennifer Dulos, 50,  has not been seen since May 24.    (Erik Trautmann/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool)
Erik Trautmann / AP
Attorney Kent Mawhinney is arraigned on conspiracy to commit murder charges in the case of missing mother of five, Jennifer Dulos, in Stamford Superior Court Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, in Stamford, Conn. Jennifer Dulos, 50, has not been seen since May 24. (Erik Trautmann/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool)
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The first wife of the Bloomfield attorney charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos has been granted sole custody of the former couple’s twin sons after telling a judge her children “are embarrassed and afraid” of her ex-husband.

Kent Mawhinney was being held Friday on a $2 million bond at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.

Police in court documents accuse Mawhinney of helping Farber Dulos’ estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, 52, of Farmington, cover up the killing of Farber Dulos. Farber Dulos, a mother of five from New Canaan, has not been seen since she dropped her children off at school on May 24. Police earlier this month charged Dulos with felony murder, murder and kidnapping.

Dulos’ former girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, and Mawhinney, are each charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Both Dulos and Troconis are free after posting $1.5 million bail.

After his arrest earlier this month, Mawhinney’s ex-wife, Monica Mawhinney, filed a motion in Superior Court to get sole custody of their twin 15-year-old sons.

“My children have been emotionally devastated from this experience,” Monica Mawhinney wrote. “They cannot go to school or go to sports practice without being afraid of what they will hear or see about their father. They are significantly disappointed, embarrassed and afraid of their father at this time.”

She asked the court to bar Mawhinney from having any contact with the children at this time even as she acknowledged it doesn’t appear he will be making bond anytime soon.

“Having exposure to their father — in person or via text, email or phone call is not in their best interests at this time,” Monica Mawhinney wrote.

Judge Susan Ann Connors granted the ex-wife sole custody earlier this week and ordered Mawhinney not to have contact with his children without their mother’s consent or an order from the court.

The Mawhinneys were divorced in 2010. They have three children. An older daughter is an adult and not covered by the new court order.

The Dulos investigation is the latest of Mawhinney’s legal troubles that include a pending divorce from his second wife. He has been arrested twice in the last year for incidents stemming from that divorce, records show.

Police charged Mawhinney with sexual assault of a spouse and violating a protective order — the latter charge stemming directly from Dulos’ attempts to serve as a peacemaker between the couple, according to court records. Mawhinney is scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court on Jan. 31 on those charges.

Stamford Superior Court Judge John Blawie referred to the protective order violation when he denied Mawhinney’s attempt to get his $2 million bond lowered.

Just days before Jennifer disappeared, Fotis Dulos played a central role in what is described in court records as an attempt to broker communication between Mawhinney and his estranged wife despite the restraining order against Mawhinney.

Dulos invited Mawhinney’s wife to meetings, including one at his Farmington home, where she was to talk with her husband. The wife initially met with Dulos at Max’s Oyster Bar in West Hartford on May 19, but after telling Dulos she would not meet with Mawhinney unless their lawyers were present, Dulos abruptly paid the bill and left, according to court records.

On May 20, Dulos called the wife again, telling her that Mawhinney was willing to meet with their lawyers present. On May 21, Dulos called again to set up a meeting, but the woman told him she had talked to her lawyer and did not want to have any contact with her husband, later telling South Windsor police that she had a feeling Dulos was luring her into a trap, court records said.

Instead, the woman contacted South Windsor police and filed a criminal complaint alleging that Mawhinney violated the terms of a protective order put in place after his arrest on sexual assault charges by working through Dulos to reach her, court records said. She also met with state police to talk about her dealings with Dulos and expressed fear for her safety.

“She stated she felt she was being ‘baited’ and was uncomfortable with the fact that Dulos kept inviting her back to his residence. She stated that she believed Dulos was ‘indebted’ to Mawhinney and that she believed Dulos was working on behalf of Mawhinney to get rid of her. She stated that she believed that Mawhinney wanted her dead,” court records said.

Mawhinney has been linked in court records to some of the case’s most sordid details of the Dulos case, including questions as to his involvement in stories about potential alibis, a call he allegedly received from Dulos as police say Dulos was discarding bloody evidence in Hartford trash bins in May and his connection to a suspected “human grave” at a gun club in East Granby.

Mawhinney is a key factor in tracing Dulos’ movements on the morning that his estranged wife disappeared. Mawhinney initially told state police there wasn’t a pre-arranged meeting for that day and that he didn’t remember talking to Dulos at all that day, according to court records.

He did admit that Dulos wasn’t at Jefferson Crossing when he was there. In his second interview, he acknowledged Dulos had set up the meeting for that morning and also told detectives that “if there’s a phone call, I guess I did (talk to Dulos),” court records said.

The meeting that morning — and changing stories about it from Troconis — are featured prominently in the arrest warrant affidavits linked to the murder case. While Troconis initially told authorities she saw both Dulos and Mawhinney at Jefferson Crossing that morning, she would later say she never saw Dulos, court records said.

Mawhinney re-enters the picture later that day, authorities say.

Phone records show that Dulos called Mawhinney at 7:47 p.m. on May 24 while police say Dulos was on Albany Avenue in Hartford dropping garbage bags coated with the blood of Farber Dulos into trash cans. The timing of that call corresponds with when state police say they believe Dulos placed a FedEx package into a storm drain in front of Scott’s Jamaican Bakery. Police recovered the package that contained an old license plate that had been altered belonging to Dulos, court records said.

“Mawhinney was asked if he would know why Dulos would have contacted him while dumping evidence into trash receptacles in Hartford. Mawhinney reiterated that he didn’t remember any kind of contact with Dulos and did not know why Fotis would have called him while disposing of evidence,” an arrest warrant affidavit said.

At the gun club in East Granby, police investigated something odd — two barbecue grill grates covered with leaves and branches. They were hiding a fairly large pit later measured at six feet long and 31/2 feet deep by state police. Inside the hole, there was a blue tarp and two unopened bags of lime, according to the arrest warrant affidavit charging Mawhinney with conspiracy to commit murder.

After an investigation of the site, authorities found “nothing of note,” according to court records.

It was not until August that a member of the gun club realized that Mawhinney — by then publicly tied to the Dulos investigation — was a former member of the club and had inquired about accessing the property back in March or April, an arrest warrant affidavit said. Police brought in cadaver dogs and dug all the way to the bottom but found no signs of human remains in the hole.

An arrest warrant affidavit said Mawhinney’s cellphone indicated that he was in the area of the gun club at 11:04 p.m. on May 31.