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The arrest took place in New London County in East Lyme, at 7 a.m. Tuesday, June 7.
Katie Ann Nichols, age 36, was charged with negligent cruelty to persons, risk of injury to a child, and reckless endangerment, following an investigation, said Chief Michael Finkelstein, of the East Lyme Police.
According to Nichols's arrest warrant, an investigation by the Department of Children & Families was initiated after her therapist reported that her client had admitted to hitting, shaking, smothering with a pillow, and strangling the boy when he would cry.
During the investigation, Nichols admitted to investigators that she did abuse her son, but that she had no plans to kill him, that she "hadn't put his head underwater," or "anything like that," the warrant said.
Nichols also said that she had done the same thing to cats when she was a child and added that she had once put a cat in a dryer, the warrant said.
Investigators also spoke with Nichols's husband who admitted he knew about the abuse, but "did not have the courage to say anything."
The father did say during the interview with investigators, that on one occasion he had taken the child from his wife and slapped her across the face, the warrant said.
The investigation also revealed that police had been to the Nichols’ home four times between Oct. 2021 and Jan. 2022, with the husband being arrested during one of the visits, the warrant stated.
The victim also told the investigator she suffered from a disorder called “intermittent explosive disorder,” and that she had suffered from "harmful thoughts about hurting herself and the child," the warrant revealed.
She also told investigators that the abuse could "most definitely happen again," the warrant said.
Following the investigation, the child was removed from the home in March, the warrant stated.
An evaluation by doctors at both Yale New Haven Hospital and Lawrence and Memorial Hospital Emergency Room found "no overt signs of trauma" and "no signs of healing wounds," the warrant stated.
Nichols is being held on a $250,000 bond.
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