DCF Had Long Involvement With Woman Charged With Keeping Son In Dog Crate

By DAVID OWENS

The Hartford Courant

The state Department of Children and Families investigated previous allegations of abuse against an Old Saybrook woman who is now accused of forcing her son to sleep in a plastic dog crate, but took no action, a warrant application for the mother's arrest reveals.

Kathlyn Anthony, 54, of River Road, was charged Sunday with risk of injury to a minor and arraigned Monday in Superior Court in Middletown. She is free after posting $100,000 bail.

Her arrest followed an investigation by Old Saybrook police and DCF that began after her daughter told school officials about her brother's "sleep locker." According to the warrant, Anthony told police that the boy defecated and urinated repeatedly in his bed, bedroom and around the house, and she was seeking a way to address the problem.

DCF records indicate that since October 2007 there have been "two or three different incidents" of reported abuse that the agency investigated, but said it could not substantiate. One case involved a report that the boy had a black eye and other bruises on his face. In another, there was a report that Anthony hurt the boy by twisting his wrist.

Anthony initially was a DCF foster parent for the boy. He began to live with her when he was 2, and Anthony adopted him when he was 3.Police did not disclose the boy's name or age, but he reportedly was born in 2004.

DCF got involved with the family again in December when the most recent allegations of abuse emerged. The boy is now in DCF custody.

Gary Kleeblatt, a spokesman for DCF, said he could not address the previous investigations or the pending criminal charge. He did say that the agency "will be conducting a review of all the circumstances surrounding this to see what can be learned from that review. It's obviously about some very disturbing treatment that his boy allegedly received at the hands of his mother. We want to take a close look at what happened."

According to the warrant for Anthony's arrest, Anthony initially denied to Old Saybrook police Officer James Kiako that she used a "sleep locker" for the boy, but she did detail what she described as the boy's defiant behavior, which including defecating and urinating on the floor in his room and on his bed. He also urinated on his pillows and stuffed animals, she said. She also told Kiako that she had sought outside help to address the boy's problems.

The boy was also damaging the house and furniture, she said.

Police said they learned that Anthony moved the dog crate to the home's basement after the investigation began. She later told police she only used it a few times.

The boy's older sister told school officials about the crate after they asked her why she was so tired at school. According to the warrant, she told them that she had been up several times during the night to let her brother out of his dog crate. Police described the crate as 36 inches long, 22 inches wide and 30 inches high.

Anthony told police she searched online for a playpen big enough to contain the boy, but couldn't find one. That's when she opted for the dog crate, according to the warrant. Anthony told the officer she thought the crate would be a "fun and positive way to provide external safety controls until [the boy] developed internal controls, so we decorated [the crate] with the kids' artwork, with beach inflatables, stuffed animals and light bedding," the warrant reads.

Amanda Grimm, the DCF investigator who worked with Kiako, reported that the boy was forced to take cold showers after he soiled himself, and that Anthony did not thoroughly address the boy's issues with his pediatrician to rule out medical problems. The boy's sister told Grimm that when he cried, his mother would sometimes put him in the basement so neighbors wouldn't hear him.

Grimm also found, according to the arrest warrant, that the boy would try to steal food from other students at school because he did not get much dinner and was not allowed to drink after a certain time in the evening.

Since the boy was removed from the home and placed in a safe house, he has been doing well and there have been only a couple instances of bed-wetting, according to the warrant.

Anthony, who could not be reached for comment, is due back in court April 8. She has not entered a plea to the charge.