NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — News 8 spoke Wednesday with the man who befriended Fotis Dulos during his house arrest over the Christmas holiday.
News 8’s Sabina Kuriakose caught up with Brad Ragaglia after his hearing in Harford community court.
The 60-year-old was charged with trespassing after police found him at Dulos’ 80 Mountain Spring Rd. property days after Dulos took his own life.
In court, a judge ordered Ragaglia to stay away from the property.
Ragaglia, a self-proclaimed investigative journalist who infiltrated Dulos’ life to the point where Dulos invited him to Christmas with his family from Greece, detailed just how deeply he got into the murder suspect’s life, including bringing Dulos a book on Catholic teachings, which brought him to tears.
“[He] came out, I gave him this book [and] told him I wasn’t here to judge him, which I wasn’t,” Ragaglia said. “I was just there to give him a book. He started crying and hugged me, asked me for my phone number, texted me immediately after I left, saying ‘you’re a great man. I can learn from you.’ This and that. I was invited over the next day for Christmas night.”
Ragaglia said he gave Dulos magnesium pills after he “complained of being depressed and having little sleep.” He also gave Dulos a vial of Holy Water and said to “bless his family with it.”
He said the pair even discussed the charges against Dulos.
The brief friendship quickly unspooled after the new year when police reports state Ragaglia mistakenly forwarded a text chain to Dulo, in which he said he was trying to get close to the 52-year-old writing “…that God put me in the situation to end this horrible drama quickly…”
Dulos then called police out of fear that his new friend was trying to kill him. It’s a claim Ragaglia still denies.
In the meantime, the Connecticut State Supreme Court has issued an order asking attorneys for late Dulos why his appeal against a gag order issued in the criminal case against their client should not be dismissed now that Dulos is dead.
Norm Pattis argued against the gag order before the panel of seven judges that his client’s constitutional rights of free speech and the right to a fair trial were being violated by the gag order.
That order had been issued in Stamford Superior Court by the judge overseeing the criminal case into the disappearance and alleged murder of Jennifer Dulos, Dulos’ estranged wife.
Dulos committed suicide weeks after being officially booked on murder and kidnapping charges last month.
Related: CT Supreme Court hears arguments on gag orders in Dulos criminal case, Pattis hopes to lift it
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Scheinblum represented the State before the Supreme Court justices.
He argued the massive media attention, as well as Pattis’ previous statements to the press, specifically regarding Jennifer’s state of mind at the time of her disappearance and her personal character, could taint the jury pool and the chances of a fair trial.
RELATED: Who is Jennifer Dulos? Missing New Canaan mother gone 8 months; main suspect dead
The Supreme Court is asking for a written memorandum addressing why Pattis’ appeal of the gag order should not be dismissed to be filed within the week.
