A day after Waterbury police arrested a girl who’s accused of holding her stepson captive for 20 years and depriving him of meals, investigators are revealing extra details about a case that the police chief referred to as the “worst therapy in humanity’ that he has seen in his many years of regulation enforcement.
The sufferer, who’s now 32 years previous, weighs solely 68 kilos has a whole lot of therapeutic to do, officers stated.
The investigation began when police and firefighters responded to a fireplace at house on Blake Avenue in Waterbury in February.
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo stated firefighters and law enforcement officials who responded to the hearth “immediately realized there were some grave concerns about some of the conditions in the house.”
Inside, they discovered a small room in the home with locks on the surface and the sufferer disclosed that he had been held captive in the home for round 20 years, Spagnolo stated.
Officers stated he used hand sanitizer and printer paper to begin the hearth in an try to flee.
Upon listening to the allegations, police began their investigation and acquired the state’s legal professional’s workplace concerned.
“Because, frankly what was being reported was unfathomable to us at that point in time,” Spagnolo stated.
Police have since arrested the sufferer’s stepmother, 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan, and police stated she instantly refused to talk with investigators.
She has been charged with assault within the first diploma, kidnapping within the second diploma, illegal restraint within the first diploma, cruelty to individuals and reckless endangerment within the first diploma.
Spagnolo referred to as the circumstances the sufferer was residing in “worse than the conditions of a jail cell” and investigators realized that the sufferer lived in worry of retaliation.
“Thirty-three years of law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity that I’ve ever witnessed,” Spagnolo stated on Thursday morning.
“Honestly, when we first started talking about it, we really couldn’t believe it,” Spagnolo stated. “It took a lot of convincing amongst ourselves to just really accept what was going on. It’s really hard to talk about still.”
He stated ‘it’ “shuddering” to assume that somebody would deal with any individual, let alongside a member of the family, this manner.
The investigators who labored on the case took up a group to purchase the sufferer clothes and books to make him extra snug as he heals, Spagnolo stated, and added that the person goes to want a whole lot of help.
Tom Pannone, the previous principal of the now-closed Barnard Elementary College in Waterbury, stated he and his employees observed that the kid was extraordinarily small and skinny when he was at school greater than 20 years in the past and so they made a number of calls to the boy’s stepmom and referred to as the Division of Kids and Households at the least 20 instances.
Spagnolo stated on Thursday morning that they’re performing some background investigating and so they have information of solely two incidents within the system from 2005 about that deal with and the household.
One name was a request from the state Division of Kids and Households to do a welfare examine as a result of youngsters who knew the sufferer have been involved as a result of they’d not seen him.
“Officers went to the house. The house was clean, it was lived in. They spoke to the victim at that point in time and there were no cause for any alarm or any conditions that existed that would have led officers to believe anything other than a normal childhood and a normal family existence was occurring. That was reported back to DCF and that was the last that we were involved in that particular investigation,” Spagnolo stated.
Then, in April 2005, police went to the home as a result of the household wished to file a harassment criticism in opposition to members of the varsity district, saying they have been constantly reporting them to DCF, however there was no proof that there was harassment occurring.
Police are persevering with to analyze and Spagnolo stated police are faculty information and DCF information as a part of that investigation.
Sullivan’s legal professional, Ioannis Kaloidis, stated his consumer is harmless and denies allegations.
“She completely maintains her innocence, from our perspective. These allegations are not true. They are outlandish. She was blown away when she heard these allegations,” Kaloidis stated. “We look forward to being able to vindicate her and show that she’s done nothing wrong.”
Kaloidis stated his consumer by no means locked her stepson in a room.
“That’s completely not true. He was not locked in a room. She didn’t restrain him in any method. She offered meals, she offered shelter. She is blown away by these allegations. It’s surprising and what’s extra surprising to me? It is how any person can (be) falsely accused of such a factor,” Kaloidis stated.
He stated Sullivan’s husband dictated how his son could be raised. Kaloidis stated the husband has since handed away.
Police stated the sufferer’s organic father died in January 2024 and, previous to his loss of life, he was in a wheelchair due to medical circumstances and two siblings have been out and in of the house and have since moved out.
Waterbury mayor Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. is looking on individuals to honor his privateness as he begins a journey to get well an ordeal, he went via from the time he was 11 years previous.
Bond for Sullivan was set at $300,000.
The bond listening to was held on Thursday and Sullivan is planning to put up bond in the present day.
Prosecutors requested for house confinement and around-the-clock lockdown and her legal professional requested for GPS.
The decide denied the requests and set the circumstances of launch as intense supervision with common check-ins with probation, and compliance with counseling if wanted.
Her subsequent courtroom date is March 26.
