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.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
The suspect’s lawyer has also called for the case against his client, Rex Heuermann, to be split into five trials. On Wednesday, the judge agreed to hold hearings to consider both requests.
With little post-pandemic recovery, experts wonder if screen time and school absence are among the causes.
State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who was once pepper sprayed by the police, released a plan to hire 3,000 additional police officers.
Caroline Kennedy stepped out of the shadows and onto social media to assail her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the eve of his Senate hearing.
Lorne Michaels reportedly dislikes when “Saturday Night Live” cast members break character. But over 50 seasons, it’s become one of the show’s signature moves — one that usually delights the audience.
Gov. Josh Green battled a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children. President Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vaccine skeptic, as his health policy chief.
The Trump administration sought to pause federal dollars to some grantees as it tries to uproot policies like diversity, equity and inclusion. Schools and universities worried important programs could be halted.
Jeal Sutherland, of Colonie, N.Y., hatched a deadly scheme with a convicted killer who was an F.B.I. informer, court documents say.
The former Trump adviser, who faces trial in March, said that he was singled out for his politics. He took aim at the district attorney in much the way the president has.
These parents believe in home-schooling and distrust food and drug companies. In Kennedy, they see “a bull in the china shop.”
The city laid out a series of proposals to reduce cancer deaths by 20 percent, and deaths from heart- and diabetes-related ailments by 5 percent, over the next five years.
In a special session on Monday, leaders seemed to be declaring their independence from a governor who has wielded so much power that legislative sessions have become largely predictable rubber stamps.
There were no Situation Room meetings and no quiet calls to de-escalate a dispute with an ally. Just threats, counterthreats, surrender and an indication of the president’s approach to Greenland and Panama.
A special session that began on Monday pairs disaster aid with two priorities for both the president and Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee: tougher immigration laws and school vouchers.
Thomas J. Mascia scattered casings around and then shot himself in the leg in a bid for attention, prosecutors said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, an unabashed fan of the Buffalo Bills, was perhaps never more popular than on Sunday in downtown Albany.
The 14th Amendment overturned the 1857 decision that denied citizenship to Black people. Scholars say President Trump’s proposal betrays that history.
The bishop asked President Trump publicly to “have mercy,” electrifying some liberal churchgoers in an era dominated by conservative versions of Christianity.