HARTFORD, Conn. – A West Hartford man accused in the disappearance of a teenage runaway found hiding in a small storage room in his home this summer was charged Wednesday with kidnapping in a separate case from 1998, his attorney said.
The charge was filed as Adam Gault, 41, waited to make a routine appearance in Hartford Superior Court to face charges in the disappearance of a teenage girl from Bloomfield.
Gault's attorney, Gerald Klein, said West Hartford police charged Gault Wednesday with first-degree kidnapping in a separate sexual assault case from 1998. Klein said prosecutors told him Gault was not charged with sexual assault because the statute of limitations on that charge had run out.
Klein said he did not know anything about the victim in the earlier case. He expected prosecutors to arraign Gault on the new charge later Wednesday. They were not available for comment.
Klein said Gault is suffering complications from diabetes and has been hospitalized at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, where he has been held on $2.25 million bond.
"He's not in good spirits or in good shape," Klein said. "He thought this series of arrests was over."
He has already pleaded not guilty to a list of charges related to the Bloomfield girl's disappearance, including sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor, unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment, custodial interference, interfering with a police officer and forgery.
Police said the girl ran away from her Bloomfield home in June 2006 when she was 14 and moved in with Gault, although he denied any knowledge of her whereabouts.
Investigators feared the girl was dead when they secured a warrant to search Gault's West Hartford home on June 6 of this year. An officer pushed aside a dresser, discovered a small door and found the girl hiding in a locked storage area.
Authorities arrested Gault and two women who lived with him, Ann Murphy, 40, and Kimberly Cray, 26. Both are also being held on bond but were not expected to appear in court Wednesday. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, hindering prosecution, risk of injury to a minor, conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint, conspiracy to commit risk of injury to a minor and interfering with police.
The girl's family has said the teen worked with Cray as a dog trainer and got to know Gault, a self-employed dog trainer, through her. The girl's stepfather also had worked briefly with Gault several years earlier.
The Associated Press is not identifying the girl or her parents to protect her identity, because of the alleged sexual assaults.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox