F. Lee Bailey calls Norm Pattis One of the Giants of the Profession

Local defense attorney weighs in on case of missing mom

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Local defense attorney weighs in on case of missing mom
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As the search for this missing mom captivates Connecticut, even making headlines around the globe, a local attorney is weighing in on the case.

Defense Attorney Norm Pattis has been involved in cases similar to the Jennifer Dulos case.

In the spring of 2015, husband and wife Jeffrey and Janette Navin vanished.

Just like in the Dulos case, police searched through landfills, searching for the remains of the couple.

In that case, it was their own son and his girlfriend who quickly became the prime suspects in their deaths and disappearances.

Pattis said there are similarities to what’s happening right now.

“There is a body somewhere in CT, and that body will tell a story,” Pattis said.

Watching the developments from afar, he said it is a fascinating, yet heartbreaking case.

This missing mother of five is presumed dead, but just where the body of Jennifer Dulos is, is the question everyone wants answered.

Timeline of events surrounding New Canaan mom's disappearance

“I woke up this morning thinking of the family of the missing woman and how anguished they are,” Pattis said, adding that the Dulos case reminds him of the deaths of Jeffrey and Jeanette Navin.

In April of 2015, the Navin couple disappeared from their Easton home.

Months later their bodies were found under a pile of leaves behind a house.

Their son Kyle Navin is now serving 55 years for killing his parents.

His girlfriend, Jennifer Valiente, whom Pattis represented, is serving eight years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and hindering prosecution.

“Our defense there was mere presence. Mr. Navin was the killer we contended, we never participated with the state or cooperated. We were asked to, but it was never my client’s intention to do that,” Pattis said.

Right now Dulos’ estranged husband Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis are charged with tampering with evidence.

Police say the duo is on surveillance video dumping garbage bags throughout Hartford and that Jennifer Dulos’ blood matched items found in those garbage bags.

“They’ve got leverage over the people, they now have bonds on them, they can now monitor them and so the case has begun, and both defendants are beginning to feel the pressure that is to come. Maybe one of them gets religion and decides to talk,” Pattis said.

Pattis adds if he was representing someone in this case, he would be advising them not to say anything, unless they were going to be given immunity.

However, he said because it’s so early, there is no reason the state would offer something like that just yet.


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