New storms approaching U.S., Iran trade attacks Grand Canyon flash flood Airport face scans Lake Ontario renaming Trump slams NBC's Welker U.S.-Venezuela oil deal Milo Yiannopoulos deported Freedom Fuel laswuit WATERBURY - The Office of the Claims Commissioner asked the attorneys to work out a way for lawyers representing a man who said he was held captive for 20 years by his stepmother to review an after-action report that could determine whether his claim against the state can proceed. The attorney general's office asked the Claims Commissioner to dismiss the case against the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, arguing the claim was filed too late and falls outside the commissioner's jurisdiction. Attorney Joel Faxon and Brittany S. Cates of the Faxon Law Group of New Haven said they need additional discovery before they're able to respond to the state's motion to dismiss the claim. The conservator for the man, who now identifies as "S," is seeking to sue DCF, citing personal injury and duty of care. The claims commissioner will have to approve the claim for a lawsuit to be filed against the state. If the claims commissioner rules against S, his attorneys can ask the legislature to proceed. The state argues the claim should be dismissed because it was filed years past the statute of limitations , saying the deadline passed around 2008 with the last contact made by DCF being in 2005. S's attorneys argue their client was still locked inside the family's home at that time. "For what's happened to S in this case, the way he was terrorized for decades, the least the state could do for him - they didn't do anything for him back in the years they were coming to his house. But they could do something for him here," Faxon said.

Faxon said he has been provided "virtually nothing" in documents from DCF and that many of those documents have been heavily redacted. He is especially interested in a DCF after-action investigative report that could shed light on whether DCF continued to have contact with the family beyond 2005. Faxon said he can't confirm 2005 was the last contact. "I know DCF has a lot of information and they do not want to share it with us," Faxon said. "They're keeping it secret and we believe we're entitled to it." Assistant Attorney General John Tucker said DCF is not trying to keep it secret, he said the department is following state law on releasing information to the public. Tucker added that the after-action report is still in draft form and the report is privileged information. "I don't know how it could be privileged. How could the state have a privilege?" Faxon responded. Claims Commissioner Robert Shea Jr. asked the attorneys to work together to figure out a way to release information so that S's attorneys have information to argue against the state's motion to dismiss. Sullivan, 57, of Waterbury, has been free on a $300,000 bond since the day after her March 13 arrest by Waterbury police on charges including first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment. Police said the man was extremely emaciated, his hair matted and unkempt, and he was dirty and his teeth appeared to be rotted, according to a warrant for Sullivan's arrest. Sullivan denied locking the victim inside his room, according to the warrant, and said his door was not locked and that he had free rein of the house. Sullivan's arrest led to mounting scrutiny of DCF over how such the alleged imprisonment could persist for more than two decades without detection. DCF child welfare workers investigated six reports of neglect involving the young boy kept in captivity over a nine-year period, but said, at the time, there was no "sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations or remove the child from the home," the department said last following a review. The investigations happened between 1996 and 2005 and were disclosed by the department following a closed-door meeting of the Committee on Children with state legislators in Hartford. The investigation occurred when the victim was between the ages of 3 and 12 years old. Sign up for the Connecticut Briefing from CT Insider. Get the biggest headlines of the day from our network of journalists around the state. This article originally published at Attorneys for Waterbury captivity survivor seeks DCF report as state tries to block claim .