WATERBURY, Connecticut — The lawyer for Kimberly Sullivan, the stepmom accused of imprisoning and abusing her stepson in their Connecticut home from the time he was a child, painted his client as the victim in the gut-wrenching case that has garnered international attention.
“Her world has been turned upside-down. She’s become public enemy number one, her face has been plastered all over — not just the state but the country and beyond,” attorney Ioannis A. Kaloidis told The Post Monday.
“She’s facing the reality that she’s got some serious criminal charges against her. Everyone is coming for her, and we’re taking it one day at a time and we’re going to prepare her defense. Hopefully she’s going to be able to do it successfully down the road.”
Sullivan, 56, was arrested last week and now faces charges including first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons and first-degree reckless endangerment.
She was released Thursday afternoon after posting $300,000 bail.
Sullivan’s stepson, now 32, weighed a shocking 68 pounds when he was pulled to safety from a fire he told cops he deliberately set in the house out of desperation to escape his alleged decades-long confinement.
He later told investigators that he’d been locked in a 9-by-8-foot storage space in the dilapidated Waterbury home from the time he was 11, and was deprived of food and water to the point he had to eat out of garbage cans and drink toilet water to stay alive.
Despite local police, the boy’s school and even child services having the family on their radar going back to 2005, he remained a prisoner in the home for more than 20 years.
At a press conference last week, Fernando Spagnolo, Waterbury’s top cop, called the details of the case “shuddering” and said that in his 33 years in law enforcement, the house of horrors was “the worst treatment of humanity that I’ve ever witnessed.”
But Kaloidis hinted at “another side to the story” that has yet to be told, which he said would be revealed “at some point” as the trial unfolds.
“Although she is eager to clear her name, there is a process that we need to follow, and it needs to be done at the appropriate time and place,” the lawyer said.
“Were just asking people to keep in mind that she is presumed innocent. That’s a presumption that remains with her. She has a right to a defense and it’s a right she’s going to exercise — and that anyone in her situation would exercise.”
He said Sullivan has invoked her right to remain silent and he doesn’t anticipate her making any statements in the near future.
Sullivan’s next court appearance is scheduled for March 26, where Kaloidis said she intends to plead not guilty.