What Is Disorderly Conduct in Connecticut?

Disorderly conduct is one of the most commonly charged offenses in Connecticut, and when it involves family members, spouses, or people living together, it is treated as a domestic violence offense. While it is only a Class C misdemeanor, the consequences can be life-changing. A conviction can leave you with a permanent criminal record, damage your reputation, and affect your job or family situation.

The Law: C.G.S. § 53a-182

In this blog, I am going to give you five things to do if you have been arrested for a domestic violence crime in Connecticut. Domestic violence arrests are more common than any other kind of arrest. This is because there is a mandatory arrest statute for all domestic violence crimes that require the police to make an arrest when they find probable cause that a domestic violence crime has occurred. There are a lot of very effective ways to defend domestic violence allegations. It is essential from the moment that you are arrested not to make the situation worse. Here are five things you can do to help improve your situation.

1. Be Prepared For Your Next Day Arraignment in Court 

In every domestic violence case, there is a mandatory next day arrangement where orders of protection will issue against you. At this court date, you will have your first meeting with the office of family relations, and they will make a recommendation about the order of protection. The big question is what kind of order will be entered by the court. If you live in the same home with the victim or have minor children in common, these orders of protection can be of huge importance. It would be best if you never went into court without consulting with an attorney first. While sometimes it may be challenging to find an attorney on such short notice, you should at least have a consultation with an attorney and review your options for the arraignment. Too many domestic violence clients wind up getting arrested and then amble into court the next morning and hope for the best. This is not the best practice. It is advised that you seek legal counsel and prepare for your meeting with the office of family relations and arraignment.

Everyone in Connecticut including the author is outraged about the death of Jennifer Dulos.  For those who may have been living under a rock for the last year, Jennifer was in the midst of a “high conflict” divorce case in Stamford Superior Court last May when she disappeared.  Her estranged husband Fotis Dulos was later charged with her murder and he committed suicide while awaiting trial on bond.  I have written extensively on how the Dulos case has had a profound effect on pending domestic violence cases throughout Connecticut.

The Dulos family had no prior arrest history and apparently there was nothing to give the court any reliable indication that a violent murder would occur.  As a result, other courts have become more cautious about resolving pending domestic violence cases.

We live in a reactionary society.  Jennifer Dulus was the number one most searched term on google in the state of Connecticut in 2019. The circus is just getting started with the trial of the co-conspirators of Fotis Dulos still looming this case will be in the spotlight of the media for months to come.  People are upset and outraged that the court system let Jennifer down and they are looking for someone to blame.   It’s strange that they can’t just accept the fact that the family court divorce system is overloaded and that a homicidal maniac like Fotis Dulos just happened to snap under the financial pressure he was facing.

I am writing this blog article for two reasons. First, there is tremendous interest in the Jennifer Dulos case and I wanted to provide some useful information about the case.  Secondly, I wanted to use this case as a teaching example about how the crime of conspiracy is a powerful tool that the state uses to get convictions in situations where the state would otherwise never have enough evidence to get a conviction for the actual crime.  Often the state can get a conviction for conspiracy to commit a crime where it lacks the evidence to prove who actually committed the crime. Conspiracy is a powerful weapon that the state can employ to crack cases and get convictions and get co-defendants to start to cooperate with the state.  The threat of conspiracy charges is often used to get suspects to talk to investigators and provide useful information.  Anyone who is a subject in a conspiracy investigation should retain the services of an experienced criminal defense attorney and refuse to answer any questions.

The Dulos Case 

Everyone knows that Fotis Dolus was charged with the murder of his estranged wife Jennifer Dulos.  Fotis Dulos committed suicide and we will never see him brought to trial.  Many people have commented on social media that this may prevent the prosecution of the co-conspirators.  This is not accurate.  The State does not need to have Fotis Dulos in order to prosecute and convict the co-conspirators.  In fact, if Fotis Dulos remained alive it would have been entirely possible for him to have been acquitted of the murder of Jennifer Dulos and the co-defendant’s to be convicted of conspiracy to commit her murder.  In this blog, we are going to have a brief discussion of the law of conspiracy and why conspiracy is often a much easier case for the state to prove than the crime itself.

As we start the new year 2020 the top story of 2019 in domestic violence law has been the case of Jennifer Dulos.   I predict that the Dulos case is going to have profound and lasting effects on domestic violence cases in Connecticut for years to come.  On December 31, 2019 the lead story  in newspapers across the State reported that the term “Jennifer Dulos” was the number one most searched term in Google for the entire State of Connecticut in 2019 by a huge factor.  Simply put, the public is fascinated, outraged and shocked by the case and this kind of widespread attention is going to have a effect in the Judicial Branch on how domestic violence cases are handled.  I want my clients who have domestic violence cases pending in the local Courts to be aware of the Dulos case and what I call the “Dulos effect.” I made a companion video on YouTube which you can watch here.

>>     Brief Background of the Dulos Case 

Jennifer Dulos suddenly disappeared in May of 2019 from her home in New Canaan.  At the time she and her husband Fotis Dulos were embroiled in a highly contested and nasty divorce battle in Stamford Superior Court before Judge Heller.   Fotis Dulos has since been charged with tampering with evidence along with his girlfriend for driving to Hartford on the night of Jennifer’s disappearance and dumping garbage bags containing clothes with Jennifer’s blood on them in the garbage.  There are a lot of details about this case and I would encourage you to do a google search if you are interested in all the particulars.  For the purposes of this blog article all we need to focus on are the following important highlights:

The Law with respect to family related, domestic violence issues. Book of law with a gavel and a Restraining Order.

As of January 1, 2019, Connecticut just passed a dramatic change in domestic violence enforcement which will have significant effects upon the rights and cases of people who get involved in domestic violence arrests.   The previous law required so called “dual arrests” which meant that Police were required by statute to arrest both or all parties in a domestic violence case if they found probable cause that they had committed a crime.   As probable cause is the lowest standard of proof in a criminal case this very often had the effect of victim’s of domestic violence being arrested after having called 911 for help when the attacker or abuser claimed that the victim “hit them first” or other similar allegations.  This resulted in a lot of needless cases filling our Courts and a lot of victims getting a bad taste in their mouths for calling the Police.

In some jurisdictions the rate of dual arrests is as high as 30% in domestic violence calls.

On July 1, 2017 the Legislature passed Public Act 17-31 (effective October 1, 2017) which had some significant changes for domestic violence laws in Connecticut.  The most interesting was the modification to the stalking statute to significantly relax the threshold for a criminal prosecution and at the same time expand the means by which stalking crimes could occur to include stalking by electronic communication and social media such as facebook, instagram, etc.

The old Stalking Statute – Under the old Connecticut stalking statutes in order to be found guilty of stalking you must have taken some overt conduct consisting or two or more acts, by which the actor either directly or through a 3rd person, “follows, lies in wait for, monitors, observes, surviels. threatens, harasses, communicates with or sends unwanted gifts to” the victim.   Also the the actor must have knowingly engaged in such conduct directed at the victim that would “cause a reasonable person to fear for such person’s physical safety.’

The new Stalking Statute