Four months before his estranged wife went missing, a frustrated and financially strapped Fotis Dulos wrote a scathing letter to judicial authorities opposing the reappointment of the judge handling his then two-and-a-half-year-old divorce case.
“I feel like a passenger in a runaway train that is headed to nowhere,” Dulos wrote in the Jan. 30, 2019, letter to the Judicial Selection Commission and obtained by The Courant.
The couple’s bitter divorce and fight over custody of their five children has been cited by investigators as a possible motive for Farber Dulos’ disappearance and suspected violent murder. The letter by Dulos criticizing Superior Court Judge Donna Heller lays out Dulos’ frustrations with the family court system and with his wife’s attorney, Reuben Midler.
It reveals not only his anger at not seeing his children “for more than one percent of the time in 2018” but also his frustrations with the cost of the divorce.
“My soon to be ex-wife has waged war against me by employing the law firm of Wayne Effron and specifically attorney Reuben Midler,” Dulos wrote. “I have been representing myself because I cannot afford legal fees of $70,0000 per month as she does. The result is I have been railroaded.”
Dulos complained that Heller allowed Midler to “always get his way” and controlled the proceedings. Midler could not be reached for comment.
Records detailed the financial drain of the bitter divorce.
The court-appointed guardian for the couple’s children, Michael Meehan, who Farber Dulos wanted removed from the case, was paid $175,000 through December 2018, records show. Dr. Stephen Herman, a child psychiatrist who authored a custody report, was paid more than $40,000 despite leaving the witness stand during cross-examination by Midler, and refusing to finish his testimony, which could make his report moot in family court.
Herman’s report has been sealed by Heller, although search warrants released recently indicate that Stamford/Norwalk State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo obtained a copy through a search warrant. At the court hearing when the report was sealed, attorneys for Dulos intimated that Herman’s report was favorable toward Dulos.
There also are costs for a family therapist, three psychologists and court-approved monitors, paid about $150 an hour, who were required to supervise Dulos’ visits with his children. Records show Dulos had at least 20-25 supervised visits with his children since Farber Dulos filed for divorce in 2017.
“Judge Heller has ruled against me over and over. I am not an alcoholic, I am not a drug addict, I am not an abuser,” Dulos wrote. “I am a good father and my children adore me.”
‘I feel like a passenger in a runaway train that is headed to nowhere’: A frustrated, cash-strapped Fotis Dulos fought against judge overseeing his two-year contentious divorce
