Abuso Infantil

[YeahMan]

Published Wednesday, August 2, 2000, in the Miami Herald


Abuse case called 'one of worst'
Investigators' reports reveal 11-year-old was tortured
BY ANA ACLE
aacle@herald.com

PARENTS: Ricardo Jose and Josefa Davila.

The 11-year-old boy was 9 months old when his parents left Nicaragua to work in the United States. Raised by his maternal grandparents in Managua, his contact with his mother and father was limited to telephone conversations.

In February, the boy and his 13-year-old sister were reunited with his parents in Miami and met their 7-year-old Miami-born brother.

But authorities say the reunion marked the beginning of a harrowing tale of abuse:

It started when he and his brother accidentally broke a washing machine. His mother beat him with an electrical extension cord. The punishment quickly escalated. When the boy failed to clean out the refrigerator, he was made to eat the rotten mangoes and an apple. For drinking two cans of juice, his father hit him in the face with the empty cans. If he told a lie, his father slammed his toes with a sledgehammer, then pulled off his toenails with a knife and pliers.

``All the time that I've been here, they have been hitting me,'' he said.

The boy's account of his first five months in the United States was outlined in sworn testimony given to prosecutors and obtained Tuesday by The Herald. The Herald is withholding the child's name to protect his identity.

His parents, Ricardo Jose and Josefa Davila, were arrested July 9 by Swee****er Police after the boy escaped from a locked bathroom and ran to a neighbor's house. They face eight counts of aggravated child abuse-torture and three for false imprisonment. Prosecutors added more charges this week: attempted felony murder, three counts of kidnapping a child under 13, child abuse and child neglect. In total: 46 counts of charges.

``This case is among the worst cases of inflicted `punishment' I have dealt with in my years of forensic evaluations,'' wrote Dr. William Lambert, of the University of Miami's child protection team, after examing the child. ``This case is obviously repeated aggravated child abuse, including bizarre and malicious punishment.''

In March, a month after his arrival in the United States, the boy came to the attention of child-welfare workers when a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary noticed he came to school with a black eye.

The boy, who now says he lied, had told investigators he had bent over and accidentally bumped into a classmate's knee -- an incident neither the teacher nor the classmate remembered. According to school attendance records, the boy had been absent three consecutive days before the teacher reported it to the Department of Children and Families.

Child protection investigators visited the home, but said they found a ``loving'' home and concluded the report was unfounded.

But the boy's own account depicts anything but a loving home.

He said his father cracked his nails with a metal spoon, and the nails would then fall off. A nurse noted that the boy is missing four fingernails from his right pinkie, left thumb, left index and left middle finger.

His father also reportedly hit his toes with a sledgehammer and pulled off the toenails ``because I didn't clean the house well,'' the boy told investigators. Cleaning the house often meant waking up as early as 5:30 a.m. to do so.

Other times, he said he was punished for wetting the bed, vomiting and lying about eating food. For drinking two cans of juice that the parents were going to sell from a truck, his father crushed the can on his eyes and face, the boy said. He also reported being hit by both parents with shoes, fists, a toilet plunger, stick and a belt.

He also said he was forced to eat egg shells, hot chili peppers, onions, rotten mangoes and a rotten apple. ``I was in charge of keeping the house clean and they forced me to eat it because I let it go bad,'' he said.

Once, he said, his parents rubbed jalapeño peppers in his eyes. He was never treated for his injuries.

His siblings both reported being sent to their rooms when the brother was about to get beaten. They, too, reported getting hit with a belt, but did not have scars or bruises.

The boy reported that he was made to eat his own vomit at least three times, once from the floor, another from atop the table and a third from inside the toilet bowl with his hand.

``They believed that I would vomit on purpose,'' he said.

In the three months that the boy was enrolled in the fifth grade at Douglas Elementary, from Feb. 10 to May 8 when he was pulled out, he had 13 excused absences and arrived late 10 times.

Since the parents' arrest, the Department of Children and Families have taken the boy and his siblings into its their custody. The children's maternal grandparents have arrived from Nicaragua and hope to gain custody of the kids