Man held captive for 20 years asks prosecutors why stepmother is free after being charged

WATERBURY, Conn. -- A Connecticut man who told authorities was held captive in his own home for two decades since he was still a boy has asked why his stepmother is not behind bars after being charged with cruelty to persons and other crimes, a state prosecutor said Friday.

Don Therkildsen Jr., a supervisory assistant state's attorney, made the remark during a court hearing in Waterbury for Kimberly Sullivan, who pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that also included kidnapping and felony assault. Sullivan was ordered to be placed on electronic monitoring, and Therkildsen also asked for house arrest over concerns she could flee.

“This victim is afraid. This victim lives in fear,” Therkildsen said in court. “I introduced myself to the victim, explained who I was. His first question in this fear is, ‘Why is she out walking around when I was locked up in a room for 20 years?’”

Sullivan, 57, posted $300,000 bail after she was arrested March 12. She has denied allegations that she kept her stepson locked in a small room in their Waterbury home and limited his food and liquids so much that he weighed only 69 pounds (31 kilograms) when he was rescued. He is 5-feet-9-inches tall (1.75 meters tall).

Sullivan's lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, objected to the house arrest request and said Sullivan has complied with all conditions since she posted bail. He also said threats have been made against Sullivan and confining her to house arrest at one location would put her in danger.

The 32-year-old man set a fire in the house on Feb. 17 in an effort to be free, police said. He was rescued by firefighters and taken to a hospital, where staff said he was emaciated from malnutrition.

He told police that he was locked in the small room with no heat or air conditioning for most of every day since he was about 11 years old, allowed out only briefly to do chores. His father, Kregg Sullivan, let him out of the room for longer periods, but he died last year, police said.

He said he was hungry all the time. He was unenrolled from Waterbury’s public school system in 2004 after educators contacted state child welfare officials with concerns about his well-being, police said. He apparently was going to be home-schooled.

State and local authorities have been looking into how this could have happened, and some are calling for stricter oversight of home-schooling.

Waterbury police have said they visited Sullivan's home twice in 2005 and there were nothing to warrant concern.

A former principal at the elementary school the man attended as a child, Tom Pannone, told WVIT-TV that school officials repeatedly called Sullivan and the state Department of Children and Families, or DCF, over concerns that he was too thin and was stealing food and eating things out of the garbage.

Police said DCF workers visited the home, but it's not clear what the agency did. The man told police that Sullivan made him tell authorities everything was OK under the threat of his food being reduced.

DCF previously said it could not immediately find any records involving the family. On Friday the agency announced that it found some records in its archives and was reviewing them.

Officials did not immediately share details of the records and said they would be providing them to police and state investigators after completing a search and review.