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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane doctor accused of attempted kidnapping appears in federal court

Ilg  (LinkedIn photo)

A Spokane neonatal physician accused in the attempted kidnapping of his estranged wife appeared in federal court Monday.

Dr. Ronald Craig Ilg, 54, is facing one count of attempted kidnapping. Federal investigators have accused Ilg of trying to have his wife kidnapped by a hired criminal.

Part of Ilg’s alleged kidnapping scheme involved paying a criminal using Bitcoin, with bonus payments for accomplishing several “goals” such as forced heroin injections twice per day with photographic evidence, according to federal investigators.

Ilg denied the allegations during an FBI interview, court records show. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 20 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine and a maximum of three years post-release supervision.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Rodgers presided over Monday’s hearing. The procedure was Ilg’s initial appearance; the court scheduled preliminary and detention hearings for Wednesday afternoon.

Sporting a black eye and represented by attorney Carl Oreskovich, Ilg appeared from the Spokane County Jail via video conference. Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies responded to his home last week in Otis Orchards on reports of an assault.

Oreskovich declined to comment following Monday’s proceeding. Assistant U.S. attorneys James Goeke and Richard Barker are prosecuting.

A petition for an order of protection, filed last week in Spokane County Superior Court by Ilg’s estranged wife on behalf of her and the Ilgs’ 2-year-old son, elaborates on the alleged kidnapping attempt.

She said she was contacted April 2 by the BBC alerting her that Ilg allegedly ordered the kidnapping on the dark web, according to court documents.

She said she was told by the BBC that the people Ilg reached, however, were scammers.

Ilg’s wife previously filed a petition for an order of protection Dec. 21, accusing Ilg of unlawful harassment.

The parties agreed to terminate the order a month later, according to court records.

According to the petition, she accused Ilg of sending “hundreds of text messages, detailing his fantasies for our relationship, begging me to return to him, using our son as a tool to harass me, etc.”

Beyond the alleged text messages, she stated Ilg attempted to bribe her to drop divorce proceedings, offering money out of the civil lawsuit stemming from the termination of his employment.

Ilg filed a lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court on April 1 claiming he was forced out of his position as corporate medical director for Pediatrix.

She also said Ilg admitted to placing GPS trackers on her car, having found such trackers in August 2019, April 2020 and June 2020, according to court records. She also accused him of allegedly downloading a child tracker app to her phone, using her email address, in June 2019.

“Ron is spiraling and continuing to get worse,” she stated in the petition, “to where now, he is threatening to come to my home despite my opposition.”