The Waterbury woman accused of starving her stepson and holding him captive for decades scored a small legal victory on Friday.

A judge denied prosecutors’ request to place Kimberly Sullivan under house arrest, but he did order her to wear a GPS ankle monitor because the victim “lives in fear.”

After the ruling, Sullivan pleaded not guilty as prosecutors revealed new details about the case against her.

Prosecutors urged Judge Joseph Schwartz to confine Sullivan to her home.

“This victim is afraid. This victim lives in fear,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Donald Therkildsen. “His first question in his fear is, ‘Why is she out walking around while I was locked up in a room for 20 years?’”

Sullivan is accused of holding her stepson captive in a 9-by-8-foot room for 20 years, with little food or water. The victim claimed he used straws and newspaper to use the bathroom.

The 32-year-old man told police that he set fire to his own room to escape. The victim weighed just 68 pounds when firefighters rescued him, according to an arrest warrant.

"I wanted my freedom," he allegedly told investigators.

Schwartz cited the seriousness of the charges in ordering GPS monitoring. He also noted that Sullivan does not have a permanent address – she’s living with relatives – and a recent mental health episode that sent her to the hospital.

"The allegations are arguably the most troubling that I've seen during my 10 years as a judge," Schwartz said. "Someone that can show such an extreme indifference to human life – can have such lack of empathy. If that person could commit that type of crime, there is certainly likely to commit another type of crime."

Sullivan is free on $300,000 bail. As she left Waterbury Superior Court, protesters shouted, “Shame on you” and “You know what you did.”

Prosecutors said the victim has shared more information with them and that new witnesses have come forward – including a longtime friend of Sullivan’s who claimed she never knew the woman even had a stepson.

“In the 21 years she’s known this defendant, she’s never spoken of a stepson,” Therkildsen told the judge. “She was shocked to learn she had a stepson, and that that friend was never allowed in this house.”

Sullivan’s legal team downplayed the new witness.

“It means nothing. There’s going to be plenty of people that are going to come out of the woodwork and have all these horrible things about my client,” said attorney Ioannis Kaloidis. “I understand the whole world wants to convict Ms. Sullivan and the whole world has, but this is the only place – the only room – we have to protect her rights.”

Child welfare authorities also provided an update on Friday. The Connecticut Department of Children and Families said that it has now located records of the victim from 20 years ago.

An initial search turned up empty because unproven allegations are erased after five years.

“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,” DCF commissioner Jody Hill-Lilly said in a statement. “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. 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.”

The victim’s birth mother said that DCF investigators should have done more. “DCF is such a broken system,” said Tracy Vallerand. “And it really needs to be revamped.”

The victim continues to recover at an undisclosed hospital facility, prosecutors said.

Sullivan will return to court on April 22.