A lawyer who used to represent Dustin J. Luchi in three of his five active criminal cases told a judge last fall that Luchi’s preliminary hearing one of those cases should be delayed because Luchi’s foster son’s lawyer needed surgery.

No one in the court system questioned whether Luchi might be a foster parent, so a delay was granted.

However, Mike Deines, senior director of public and governmental affairs for the Department for Children and Families, told the Record that the agency had no record of Luchi being a foster parent.

Informed of the potential contradiction, county attorney Joel Ensey said he did not know whether Luchi was a foster parent but would check into it.

The earliest still-pending case against Luchi stems from May 5, 2021.