Press Release

DAY CARE OWNERS INDICTED FOR ABUSE OF NINE INFANTS AND TODDLERS

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that married couple Ilya Davydov and Ksenia Davydov have been indicted and charged with multiple crimes for allegedly abusing nine infants and toddlers at the day care center they operated from their Jamaica Estates home. The abuse is alleged to have included grabbing and kicking babies, shoving an apparently soiled diaper into an 11-month-old’s mouth and dropping one child onto a table with such force that his cochlear implants detached from his head.

District Attorney Katz said: “The allegations in this case are a working parent’s worst nightmare. As a mother of two boys, I understand the extreme care that parents take in researching and selecting day cares for their children. 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. After an anonymous report of abuse at the facility in December 2023, my office and the NYPD immediately shut the business down so that no more children could get hurt. My office is determined to get justice for these child victims and their families.”

Ilya Davydov, 48, has been indicted on charges of five counts of attempted assault in the second degree and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Ksenia Davydov, 41, has been indicted on charges of four counts of attempted assault in the second degree and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The defendants, both of 188th Street, were arraigned Tuesday before Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris and ordered to return on February 21. If convicted of the top count, they face a potential sentence of up to 1 1/3 to four years in prison on each count of attempted assault in the second degree, which is the maximum allowed under the law.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges and investigation, Ksenia Davydov had a New York state license to operate KSE Service Inc., a day care center in her home on 188th Street. In late December 2023, acting on an anonymous tip that children were being abused inside the home, the police and the state Office of Children and Family Services, which licenses child day care facilities, visited the location and immediately shut it down for various violations. In addition, the police obtained a court-authorized search warrant for the premises and a large cache of video from surveillance cameras was recovered.

During the investigation that followed, NYPD investigators and members of the District Attorney’s office reviewed hundreds of hours of video from inside the location which contained various recorded incidents of abuse and endangering. Together they worked to identify the children depicted in the videos. As reflected in the charges contained in the indictment, the investigation revealed that:

  • Ksenia Davydov, on various dates, abused an 11-month-old boy by, among other things, forcing an apparently soiled diaper into his mouth, holding a pillow over the infant’s face, carrying the infant—sometimes upside down—by his limbs and dropping him onto furniture. Ilya Davydov hit the infant in the head.
  • On multiple dates, a 3-year-old boy was abused when, among other things, Ilya Davydov suspended him in the air by grabbing the child around the neck with both hands, dropped the child into a crib and kicked the child.
  • Ksenia Davydov shoved a 17-month-old off a sofa causing the child to fall onto the floor.
  • On various dates, a 17-month-old boy was abused when, among other things, Ilya Davydov struck the child in the head and suspended him in the air by lifting him off the floor from the hood of his jacket; Ksenia Davydov suspended the child in the air upside down by holding his shirt and leg and then dropped him onto a table causing the child’s cochlear implants to detach from his head.
  • Ilya Davydov kicked a 19-month-old in the back.
  • Ilya Davydov suspended a 17-month-old girl in the air by grabbing her arm and then dropped her into a crib.
  • Ksenia Davydov yanked a 21-month-old by the arm.
  • Ksenia Davydov and Ilya Davydov each suspended a 15-month-old in the air by the arm on various dates.
  • Ksenia Davydov threw objects at a 14-month-old boy. On various dates, Ilya Davydov shoved the child causing him to fall face down on a sofa, suspended the child in the air by grabbing the child’s arm, suspended him in the air by grabbing the child’s shirt, and threw the child into a crib.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Carina Herrera and other members of the NYPD Queens Child Abuse Squad and Assistant District Attorney Chrystina Lopera of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau.

Assistant District Attorney Lopera is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum, Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, Debra Lynn Pomodore, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, Brian Hughes and Lauren Parson, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Special Prosecutions Division Executive Assistant District Attorney Joyce Smith.

**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Posted in

Recent Press