A Portland father is facing more than three dozen charges, including first-degree assault and first-degree criminal mistreatment, after a child abuse pediatrician determined his 5-year-old daughter had been tortured.
Editor's note: The following story on court documents obtained by KOIN 6 News is extremely graphic and may be disturbing to readers.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Portland father is facing more than three dozen charges, including first-degree assault and first-degree criminal mistreatment, after a child abuse pediatrician determined his 5-year-old daughter had been tortured, court documents reveal.
Javon Markquez Ingram, 30, was booked in the Multnomah County Jail Monday on the charges, but the investigation began almost a year ago on Nov. 2, 2021, when he brought his 5-year-old daughter to an urgent care clinic and her condition required her to be sent to the emergency department of Randall Children’s Hospital, according to court documents obtained by KOIN 6 News.
The arrest and charges were first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Larissa Danielle Ducan, a woman Ingram was living with at the time, is listed as a co-defendant with Ingram on the indictment. They face several of the same charges. Ducan has not been arrested yet.
When the girl arrived at the hospital in fall of 2021, care staff determined she was severely malnourished and had extensive, unexplained injuries all over her body, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Rachna H. Hajari. Portland Police Bureau child abuse detectives were called to investigate.
According to the affidavit, Ingram brought his daughter into urgent care because of her behavior the night before. He allegedly said he wasn’t sure if she was having seizures or throwing a fit, but said she’d been going tense and moaning with her arms at 90 degrees, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth and her eyes enlarged. She would then stop, sigh, and be done, he reportedly said.
These episodes occurred several times through the night and Ingram said he did not see a dire need to call 911 or bring her to a hospital, according to the affidavit.
When detectives visited the girl in the hospital, they said in the affidavit they were horrified when they saw her. She had a bandaged abrasion on the bridge of her nose and many sores and cuts around her mouth.
According to the affidavit, the girl said she’d been tied up to a door in a loft with chains, wore a dog color and went to the bathroom outside with the dog.
The girl allegedly told them she’d been tied up with “dollar store zip ties and duct tape” and said she would be beaten with a belt when she urinated or defecated “everywhere.” According to the affidavit, she said she would get socks stuffed in her mouth when she whined and begged detectives and the Department of Human Services caseworker not to leave.
A CARES NW child abuse pediatrician was consulted for the girl’s case and after reviewing her medical chart, she found 33 injuries to the girl that she ultimately diagnosed as torture, according to court documents.
Among those injuries listed in the affidavit were the fact that the girl weighed 29.8 pounds, putting her under the third percentile of weight for 5-year-old girls, and that the girl's heart rate was dropping to 30 beats per minute, which is associated with chronic anorexia.
The court documents stated the following: the cracks and blood on the sides of her mouth were consistent with repeated gagging; her ankles were “completely broken down,” associated with being tied down; and she had subdural hemorrhaging around her brain, associated with whiplash injuries; she had a distended abdomen, a prolapsed rectum, an old pelvis fracture and a chronic fracture to her thumb from the pressure of being tied down; her spinal bones and ribs were visible and she was so malnourished that her body would reject food by vomiting after she ate.
According to the court document, Ingram told investigators his daughter is not potty trained and does not go to school. She drinks four jars of blended food with a vitamin supplement because she’s choked on food previously.
However, doctors allegedly found that the girl did not have any problems with choking on solid food.
Her father told detectives that she would throw fits every day, bang her head on the floor and walls, and self-mutilate and scratch herself, according to the affidavit.
The child abuse pediatrician who reviewed the girl’s case allegedly determined it is “not plausible” that any of her wounds were self-inflicted and said “in all cases, an external factor caused the injury.” She said many of the injuries on the girl were in places she could not reach, according to the affidavit.
Initially, according to the affidavit, Ingram admitted to detectives he disciplines his daughter but said it is not effective.
“It’s not like I have beaten her up to the point she is unconscious because she pooped in her diaper or had an accident or anything,” he said.
The day after the girl arrived at the hospital, detectives served a search warrant at the home Ingram and Ducan lived in on Southeast Liebe Street in Portland and at a nearby tiny home, according to court documents, where they found a blender in the family room and a wooden board with two straps in the Ducan home. At the tiny home, detectives found zip ties, duct tape circles, and a dog shock collar in a box next to the bed in the loft, the affidavit said.
On Nov. 10, 2021, detectives spoke to Ingram again. They read him a list of the girl’s injuries and initially, he denied any involvement in inflicting them. According to the affidavit, he continued to blame her injuries on her self-harming behavior.
He allegedly said the injury to the bridge of her nose, which detectives believe was caused by repeated blindfolding, started as a red dot and grew when she picked at it. He allegedly said the injuries to her ankles were from rain boots and rubbing her ankles together in her sleep.
Ingram allegedly told detectives he knew he was going to get blamed for his daughter’s injuries because he is her dad and he let it happen.
According to the affidavit, when detectives asked if he did it, he stated, “No, but I’ll say I did.”
Court documents state when detectives told him they wanted the truth and not what Ingram thought they wanted to hear, Ingram stated, while holding the picture of zip ties and duct tape, that he did it “too many times.” He said the pressure sores on her elbows could have been from being restrained and admitted to putting duct tape and a towel over her mouth, according to the affidavit.
The court document says that he smacked her in the mouth for yelling in his face and that he tried to put a sock in her mouth to try and keep her quiet.
He said, “I know what I did was (expletive) up,” the affidavit states.
Ingram wrote a confession statement that said, “I Javon Ingram did tie, bound, and zip tie and hold you in place to calm and have you in a controlled state,” according to the affidavit. At the end of the interview with detectives, Intram asked, “So what am I being charged with, torture?”
According to the affidavit, the girl participated in a forensic interview on Nov. 12 where she said she was forced to march in place and run when she got in trouble. She allegedly said Ingram would put her in a high chair and put zip ties and a sweatshirt on her when he went to work and that he would hurt her, adding that she would get tape put on her to keep her from moving around.
When a detective reviewed Ingram’s cell phone, he found several photos of the girl, including one where she is tied with her hands behind her back, one where she is blindfolded and tied and strapped to a high chair, and another where she is in a high chair with a sweatshirt tied around her chest and the straps of the high chair are zip tied together, according to the affidavit.
The detective also found videos of forced exercise where the girl is running laps in the tiny home with her hands tied behind her back, the affidavit said.
Ingram’s daughter was placed in her grandmother’s care in January, and according to the affidavit, she’s made several more disclosures about the abuse she suffered.
Ingram told detectives he took custody of his daughter when she was 2 years old and that her mother was addicted to methamphetamine, according to court documents.
According to the indictment, prosecutors believe the abuse took place between January 1, 2019 and November 1, 2021.
Ingram is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on Jan. 17, 2023. His bail has not yet been set.
Javon Markquez Ingram was arrested on the following charges:
Larissa Danielle Ducan is facing the following charges, according to the indictment:
Five counts of first-degree assault
Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.
KOIN 6 News' Lisa Balick contributed to this story.
