Woman forced adopted son to sleep in dog crate after he soiled his bed: police

BY Lauren Johnston

A Connecticut mom who punished her son by forcing him to sleep in a plastic dog crate was busted in Connecticut, police said.

Kathylyn Anthony, 54, was apparently so enraged her adopted son soiled his bed that she made him stay in the crate for two weeks.

Anthony was arrested Sunday in Old Saybrook and charged Monday with causing risk of injury to a minor, police said.

"Apparently, the child who was in the crate was having some issues, or the mother was having some issues with the child defecating in the juvenile's bed or within his bedroom," Sgt. Kevin Roche told TheDay.com.

The unidentified child is under 17, police said.The plastic kennel - it's just over 2-feet high - had once housed the family's cats. It has narrow air slats covered with rusting metal bars.

Police and the state's Department of Children and Families started investigating Anthony several months ago after receiving a tip from an employee at the boy's school.

Anthony appeared in Middlesex Superior Court Monday and was released on $100,000 bond, the Hartford Courant reported.

Anthony apparently tried other remedies and "different ways of correcting the issue" before resorting to the animal crate, Roche said.

"She started using the dog crate as a way of - and I don't want to say punishment - but that's where he slept at night," Roche said.