Kimberly Sullivan, a Connecticut girl who’s accused of locking her emaciated stepson in a room of their residence and ravenous him for many years, appeared in Waterbury Superior Court docket on Friday, the place she entered a not responsible plea and the choose ordered that she be underneath GPS monitoring.
Decide Joseph Schwartz mentioned he determined that GPS monitoring was acceptable given her psychological well being situations and the dearth of a everlasting residence since she resides together with her youngsters.
This look got here after Sullivan made a short courtroom look on Wednesday morning that lasted solely 50 seconds.
After that courtroom look, the state filed a movement to request a modification on the situations of her launch to incorporate digital monitoring with home arrest or GPS monitoring.
“This victim is afraid. This victim lives in fear,” Donald Therkildsen, the supervisory assistant state’s lawyer, mentioned in courtroom on Friday morning. “I launched myself to the sufferer, defined who I used to be. His first query on this worry is, ‘Why is she out strolling round after I was locked up in a room for 20 years?”
Therkildsen additionally informed the courtroom that one in every of Sullivan’s pals got here ahead and mentioned she was by no means allowed in the home and didn’t know Sullivan had a stepson.
“A friend of the defendant of 21 years has come forward and provided a written statement to the state, to the police, that in the 21 years she’s known as defendant, she’s never spoken of a stepson, she was shocked to learn she had a stepson, and that that friend was never allowed in this house,” he mentioned.
Sullivan’s attorneys filed an objection to the situations.
Sullivan’s lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, mentioned the situations that had been put in place initially had been acceptable.
“My client has been complying with the conditions and has done what has been asked of her,” he mentioned. “And it would send a dangerous message to change them.”
He mentioned a number of threats have been made towards his shopper and he had suggested that she go away the state for her personal security.
“She has appeared in court despite the difficulty in getting here. There are serious safety concerns for her. Putting her in a specific area where she cannot leave will only create additional safety concerns. There are numerous threats against her.” Kaloidis said. “Numerous people have made threats. They’re posting them online, talking about not waiting to be able to see her out in public. She needs to be able to have freedom of movement.”
Schwartz known as the allegations towards Sullivan troubling.
“The allegations are arguably essentially the most troubling that I’ve seen throughout my tenure as a choose and present actually unthinkable quantity of lack of empathy,” he mentioned.
He determined to order GPS monitoring, however not home arrest.
After making his argument towards altering the situations, Sullivan’s lawyer requested about coming into a not responsible plea.
The subsequent courtroom date has been set for April 22.
Police haven’t recognized the sufferer to guard his privateness. They mentioned he has a conservator and continues to obtain therapy at a medical facility.
Firefighters discovered him on the night time of Feb. 17 after they responded to the two-story Colonial residence at 2 Blake St. in Waterbury, after they had been dispatched to place out a hearth.
Video from that decision confirmed Sullivan outdoors the house.
Firefighters mentioned they discovered her stepson within the fetal place on the ground within the kitchen.
At first, they thought he was a baby.
The sufferer, who’s 32 years previous, weighs solely 68 kilos, police mentioned.
Firefighters picked him up, introduced him outdoors and put him in an ambulance.
He informed first responders that he had been locked in the home for his whole life and set the hearth as a result of he wished his freedom, in line with the arrest warrant.
Weeks after the hearth, police charged 56-year-old Sullivan 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. She was launched on $300,000 bond and has not been ordered to be on GPS monitoring.
She has denied the allegations.
Kaloidis has mentioned his shopper maintains her innocence and the allegations are critical, they aren’t true and the state has to show them in courtroom.
“Those allegations are made by one person. I understand the whole world has jumped on those allegations and has already convinced my client, but the good thing about America is that is not how we work,” he mentioned.
The sufferer’s organic mom, Tracy Vallerand, was within the courtroom on Wednesday to point out help for her son as his stepmother’s case goes earlier than the courtroom. And she or he was there on Friday as properly.
Vallerand mentioned the final time she noticed her son was when he was 6 months previous.
Throughout an unique sit-down interview with NBC Connecticut, Vallerand mentioned she gave up custody of her son shortly after his beginning in 1993 as a result of she was struggling after shedding custody of her daughter, the sufferer’s half sister, Heather Tessman. three years earlier.
“We should actually start when Heather was born, because that’s pretty much where it all began,” Vallerand mentioned. “One day I was at work. I got called up that Heather was being taken to the hospital. DCF (the state Department of Children & Families) took her, said she had shaken baby syndrome.”
Vallerand mentioned her daughter’s father was charged with the crime, each of them misplaced custody and Tessman grew up with foster mother and father.
Vallerand mentioned she was considering, “that I was giving my son a better chance at a full life.”
He went on to stay together with his father and Kimberly Sullivan.
The daddy died in January 2024 and the sufferer informed police that the abuse, which began when he was 3, acquired worse after his father’s demise, in line with the arrest warrant for Sullivan.
Vallerand mentioned she made many makes an attempt to get again into her son’s life and he or she and her daughter had been in search of him for years.
Vallerand and Tessman haven’t but spoken with the sufferer and mentioned they don’t know the place he’s now, however they may proceed to point out as much as help him.
She mentioned on Friday that she doesn’t anticipate with the ability to converse together with her son so long as there may be an ongoing investigation.
“When he is healthier and he’s stronger, if he wants a relationship with me, I am right here. I’m not going anywhere,” Vallerand mentioned in an interview with NBC Connecticut.
Watch “Waterbury Man Held Captive,” an NBC Connecticut particular report
