Abuse at N.Y.C. Day Care Was ‘Parent’s Worst Nightmare,’ Prosecutor Says
The New York Times
A husband and wife who ran a day care in Queens are charged with beating, dropping and throwing children as young as 11 months. One child’s hearing implants were knocked loose.
A husband and wife who operated a day care out of their Queens home were charged this week with kicking and abusing toddlers, dangling them by their limbs and, once, shoving a soiled diaper into the mouth of an 11-month-old.
The couple, Ilya Davydov, 48, and Ksenia Davydov, 41, were arraigned on Tuesday before Justice Gia Morris in Queens criminal court on charges of attempted assault and endangering a child’s welfare. If convicted, they face a sentence of up to four years in prison for each count of attempted assault.
“The allegations in this case are a working parent’s worst nightmare,” the Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, said in a news release announcing the charges on Thursday. “At the bare minimum, parents should be able to rely on a child’s basic needs being met and the safety of their children being assured.”
Both Mr. and Ms. Davydov pleaded not guilty and were released on the condition of supervision and the surrender of their passports, according to their lawyer, Camille Opal Russell.
Ms. Russell said on Thursday that her clients strongly contested the charges against them. “My clients look forward to their day in court,” she said. “They vehemently deny any wrongdoing and intend to defend this case to the very end.”
The couple operated the state-licensed day care center, called KSE Service Inc., in their home in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood, the district attorney’s office said. The facility was closed in December 2023, immediately after the police and New York’s Office of Children and Family Services, the licensing agency, inspected it based on an anonymous tip.
