A Connecticut woman accused of holding her stepson captive for more than 20 years, subjecting him to squalid living conditions while depriving him of food, water and other basic needs, made her first court appearance on Wednesday.
Kimberly Sullivan said little during the brief session in Waterbury Superior Court in which her attorney filed a motion to alter the terms of her conditional release. During the brief hearing, Attorney Ioannis Kaloidis indicated his client intends to plead not guilty to the charges, though he did not enter the formal plea during Wednesday’s proceedings.
The charges Sullivan faces include assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree, cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in the first degree.
“She completely maintains her innocence,” Kaloidis told NBC Connecticut.
“From our perspective, these allegations are not true. They are outlandish,” he continued. “We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”
The disturbing case was uncovered last month, after Sullivan’s stepson intentionally set fire to their Waterbury home in what he told authorities was a desperate bid to escape his captor. The man measured 5-foot-9 and weighed just 68 pounds when firefighters rescued him from the flaming residence on Feb. 17, and the last time he had a bath was some two years prior, he said.
Now 32 years old, the victim recalled for investigators how Sullivan pulled him out of school when he was just 11, and then started to hold him in an 8-foot by 9-foot room with no bathroom shortly thereafter. He said he was around 14 or 15 years old the last time he was allowed to leave the home. The excursion involved traveling to dump yard waste with his father, who died last year. After, he was remanded to their house, where he was often forced to stay in his small room for 23 hours a day, he said.
The man also described a previous escape attempt in which he cut a hole in the door to his room, but he was ultimately unsuccessful. This time around, he used hand sanitizer, printer paper and a lighter to spark a blaze in his makeshift prison, which ultimately forced Sullivan to call for help.
She was arrested on March 12 and has since been released on $300,000 bond.
During the hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors requested that Sullivan wear an electronic monitoring device. She is due back in court on Friday.