WATERBURY, Conn. — Kimberly Sullivan pleaded not guilty to allegations she held her stepson captive for 20 years in abusive conditions in a small storage room during a hearing Friday where a judge ordered that she be put on GPS monitoring while she is out on bond.

The hearing, held in Waterbury Superior Court, came after Assistant State’s Attorney Donald E. Therkildsen, Jr. filed a motion this week seeking to put Sullivan under electronic monitoring and house arrest. Judge Joseph Schwartz agreed to put Sullivan — who is free on a $300,000 bond — on GPS monitoring through an ankle bracelet but denied Therkildsen’s request to place her under house arrest.

Sullivan’s attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, filed two memorandums opposing the added conditions. In one of them, he cited case law tied to a judge’s decision in the murder case against Michelle Troconis centered around the right to bail and the presumption of innocence. He argued that the added conditions could interfere with his client’s right to a fair trial.

“The whole world is watching, and if we add additional conditions now we send the message that she did something wrong,” Kaloidis said.

Kaloidis contended that this was the third time he had appeared before a judge to discuss his client’s conditions of release and that another judge had already rejected electronic or GPS monitoring during a previous proceeding. The only notable change since Sullivan’s arrest has been the two-week track record of compliance she has shown, he argued, adding that she has not been accused of committing any violations.

Therkildsen, however, pointed to what he believes are two changes since the arrest that warranted the request for GPS monitoring. After the case gained statewide and national attention, he said additional witnesses have come forward, including one who claims to have been friends with Sullivan for 21 years, during which time she reportedly never even mentioned having a stepson and never allowed the friend into her home.

“She was shocked to learn she had a stepson,” Therkildsen said.

Therkildsen also said he has since had the chance to meet the victim — a 32-year-old man who, at 5 feet, 9 inches tall, weighed just 68 pounds when he was rescued from Sullivan’s home in February.

“This man lives in fear,” Therkildsen said.

According to Therkildsen, the first thing the man asked him was why Sullivan was free from custody.

“Why is she out walking around when I was locked up for 20 years?” the man asked, according to Therkildsen.

Therkildsen also argued that the charges Sullivan faces could expose to her a prison sentence that would keep the 56-year-old locked up for the rest of her life, making her a flight risk.

In placing Sullivan under GPS monitoring, Schwartz made it clear to Sullivan that it has “nothing to do with you being guilty.”

“You have the presumption of innocence,” Schwartz told her. “You will get a fair trial. The reason I put GPS monitoring on you has nothing to do with being guilty and shouldn’t be interpreted that way.”

Schwartz noted that the charges accuse Sullivan of showing an “extreme indifference to human life” and demonstrated a “lack of empathy,” adding that the allegations are the “most troubling” he has seen since becoming a judge. He said the nature of the alleged offense played a role in his ruling, as well as information suggesting Sullivan was treated at a hospital following her arrest for mental health reasons.

During the hearing, Sullivan pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, cruelty to persons, first-degree reckless endangerment and first-degree unlawful restraint. The case was continued until April 22.

For the second straight hearing, Sullivan was dropped off in front of the courthouse and refused to answer questions from a slew of reporters. Inside the courtroom, she sat alone in the back row until her case was called. She made her way back to a waiting car minutes after the hearing and did not utter a word during the proceedings or to reporters outside the courthouse.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit filed in the case, Sullivan’s stepson purposely lit a fire at their Waterbury home on Feb. 17 and waited to be rescued by firefighters before telling officials at the scene about the alleged horrific conditions he has endured for two decades.

He told police he was given little food and water since he was a child — leading to times when he was so thirsty he would drink out of a toilet — and was only let out of an 8-foot by 9-foot storage room for 15 minutes to two hours a day to do chores, the warrant affidavit said. The man also alleged that there were days when he would be kept locked in the room, which lacked heat or air-conditioning and had a latch on the outside, for 24 hours straight without being allowed to use a bathroom, according to the warrant affidavit.

The man has been recovering at a long-term facility since his rescue after being diagnosed with a condition commonly referred to as “wasting syndrome” as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, the warrant affidavit said. Doctors found that he was developmentally delayed at an adolescent cognitive level. He told police he was pulled from school in 2005 at 11 years old after school officials raised concerns to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.

Waterbury Police Chief Fernando C. Spagnolo has previously said police found a record of two instances where officers had involvement with the family, including a welfare check involving the victim and another where the family accused DCF of harassing them.

Following Sullivan’s arrest, DCF commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly said the agency was unable to find any records indicating it had involvement with the family, adding that reports of neglect or abuse that are unsubstantiated are expunged from an electronic database after five years. After Friday’s hearing, Hill-Lilly issued another statement saying the agency has since turned up records involving the family in its archives.

“Records were located in the archived closed records, and the department is currently reviewing them for purposes of assessing our work with the family over 20 years ago and to inform any need for current statutory or practice reforms,” Hill-Lilly said.

“We have met with the Waterbury Police Department and engaged in discussions with the Office of the Child Advocate to advise them of our actions and will provide them a copy of the records once we have completed our search and review of them,” she said. “Several meetings have also been held with bipartisan legislators.

“After we have completed a comprehensive assessment of our prior involvement, the department will be as transparent as possible in sharing our results while working within the parameters of both federal and state confidentiality laws,” Hill-Lilly added.

Outside the courthouse on Friday, Kaloidis once again declined to provide any kind of explanation as to how the victim could only weigh 68 pounds at 32 years old. He has previously said the man’s care was dictated by his father — who died in January 2024 — throughout his childhood and into his adult years and claimed that Sullivan never played any role in confining him to the home.

“The burden is not going to shift to the defense,” he said. “The burden rests on the state. They’ve got to prove these allegations in court, and we’re a long way from that.”

Kaloidis also downplayed the additional witnesses prosecutors say they have, including the one who expressed shock to learn Sullivan had a stepson.

“It means nothing,” Kaloidis said. “There’s going to be plenty of people that are going to come out of the woodwork and have all these horrible things to say about my client. We’ll see what’s actually admissible in court and what stands up in court under cross-examination.”

Kaloidis said his focus remains on working to ensure Sullivan gets a fair trial, adding that he feels like one of the few people who cares about her rights.

“The popular sentiment is to convict her, but what people need to understand is if we’re willing to trample on Kimberly Sullivan’s rights, then other people’s rights are also going to be trampled on,” Kaloidis said.

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