Police: Couple confined children in dog cage

A couple who lived in Newington for years has been charged with two felonies for locking two of their children in a dog cage to discipline them, as well as feeding them inadequately and hitting them with a paddle, Newington police said.

Michael Thalmann, 44, and his wife, Jennifer Thalmann, 48, were charged with two counts of cruelty to persons and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. Both are felony charges.

Lt. Michael Morgan, commander of Newington Police Department’s detective unit, said the family lived at 67 Kirkham Place in Newington until recently. At the end of May, the police department was contacted by the Department of Children and Families, saying there had been complaints against the parents of “excessive discipline.”

“The parents refused to be interviewed by us,” Morgan said, but detectives were able to confirm and substantiate the complaints DCF had received. Morgan said the parents used one dog crate, and the children were confined there at different times.

The incidents went back as far as the beginning of 2013, Morgan said, and, according to the charges, the alleged abuse continued in Newington through June.

The Thalmanns were served with arrest warrants recently in their new home in Pennsylvania, and on Sunday, turned themselves in at the Newington police headquarters. They are there on a $250,000 bail.

The abuse was against a son and daughter who were 10 and 9 when the investigation began in May, but a younger child was not subject to the same treatment, Morgan said.

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz said her department is helping Pennsylvania’s child protection authorities “as they work to ensure the safe and proper care of the children.”

DCF declined to comment further, citing the confidentiality of the children.

Jennifer Thalmann is a massage therapist with a license in Connecticut, according to the state licensing database.

Michael Thalmann wrote on his Facebook page that he’s a veterans service representative for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.