Old Saybrook - A 54-year-old local woman appeared in Middlesex Superior Court Monday on charges that she had kept her son in a dog crate at night because he was soiling his bed or bedroom, according to police.

Kathlyn Anthony, of 28 River Ave., was charged Sunday with risk of injury to a minor following months of investigation that involved Old Saybrook police and the state's Department of Children and Families.

Old Saybrook police learned from an Old Saybrook public schools employee in December that Anthony had allegedly been keeping her son in a dog crate at night for about two weeks, said police Sgt. Kevin Roche.

The plastic crate with a metal door measured 36 inches by 22 inches and was 30 inches high, Roche said. The family had once used the crate to house cats, Roche 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," Roche said.

Roche would not disclose the boy's age or the school he attended to protect the child's identity. He said the boy was adopted but could not say when he had been adopted or how many other children Anthony had.

Roche said Anthony had "sought out some other remedies - different agencies and different ways of correcting the issue - and it didn't work," Roche said.

"So 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.

No one answered the door at Anthony's home Monday night.

j.cho@theday.com