Kent Mawhinney's law license is going to be suspended.
The state office that disciplines attorneys has filed a petition to suspend the law license of Kent D. Mawhinney, who is facing conspiracy to commit murder charges for his alleged role in the disappearance of Jennifer Farber Dulos.
In a two-page motion, Brian B. Staines from the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, is seeking to have Mawhinney’s law license suspended and a trustee appointed to secure any of his clients’ funds
Staines said that “due to Mawhinney’s incarceration and any conditions that may be imposed upon his release from custody, he cannot attend to the legal needs of his clients and there exists a substantial threat of irreparable harm to his clients or to prospective clients.”
Mawhinney has a law office in Bloomfield and is a solo practitioner, Staines said. He doesn’t maintain an Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program in a financial institution in Connecticut with his clients funds as many attorneys do. The trustee is needed to keep his clients’ funds safe...
Dulos and Mawhinney began their close relationship through business dealings when Mawhinney would handle real estate closings for Dulos’ luxury home building company, Fore Group Inc. They grew closer through the years as both struggled through highly contentious divorces, with Dulos — just days before his own wife disappeared — playing what authorities describe as an active role as a liaison between the Mawhinneys.
While the contentious divorce between Dulos and Farber Dulos has sparked national attention since her disappearance in late May, Mawhinney also has been going through a bitter divorce that includes allegations that he violated a protective order prohibiting communication between the couple. Judge John Blawie referred to that violation as a main reason that he didn’t want to lower Mawhinney’s $2 million bond
The trustee also would review all of the office mail, protect the interests of his clients and make sure their funds are accounted for...
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. 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 Dulos’ girlfriend at the time, Michelle Troconis — are featured prominently in the arrest warrant affidavits linked to the murder charge. 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.
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,” the arrest warrant affidavit said...
It was not until August that one of the friends 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, the 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.
The 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.
Kent Mawhinney, Fotis Dulos co-conspirator, faces law license suspension