Wealthy Father to Be Arraigned for Allegedly Kidnapping Valley Toddler

A British man who vanished with his 2-year-old daughter during a supervised visit on Christmas Eve and was found with the toddler in Palm Springs a week ago is set to be arraigned today.

Jack Joseph Perry, 31, was charged Wednesday with one felony count each of kidnapping and child stealing. Prosecutors are expected to amend the criminal complaint to add three misdemeanor counts of violating a court order that had already been filed against Perry by the City Attorney’s Office in a separate case.

At a hearing last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sergio C. Tapia II ordered Perry to be held in lieu of $1 million bail. The judge also ordered Perry not to have any personal, electronic or telephonic contact with his daughter, Lucia, or the girl’s mother, Elise, and not to come within 100 yards of the two. Perry has no-bail warrants from Florida and Nevada, a prosecutor told the judge.

The warrant from Florida involves felony bribery and DUI, while the charges in Nevada involve an 18-count case alleging forgery, theft and obtaining money under false pretenses, according to paperwork submitted to the court by a Los Angeles police detective.

Perry -- a resident of the Santa Monica area -- was arrested last Monday night after Los Angeles police asked for the public’s help in finding the girl.

The person supervising the visitation of Lucia Perry and her father, who does not have legal custody of the toddler, lost sight of them about 5 p.m. Thursday at The Grove shopping center, according to police.

Police said they received a call around 9:30 p.m. last Monday from a woman who said she saw a community alert flier on the tot’s disappearance and said she believed she had seen them in Palm Springs.

Detectives at the LAPD’s Van Nuys station called the Palm Springs Police Department, whose officers found the father and daughter last Monday night in an apartment that Jack Perry had rented under a fictitious name, said Officer Ricardo Hernandez of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section.

The girl was subsequently reunited with her mother, who held her daughter in her arms during an afternoon news conference last Tuesday at the Van Nuys police station.

“I want to thank everybody for taking the time and looking at her photo ... and for social media, everybody kept reposting and reposting,” said Elise Perry, who lives in the San Fernando Valley.

She also thanked the Los Angeles and Palm Springs police departments, adding that she and her daughter celebrated Christmas after the girl’s return.

The day before his arrest, Jack Perry was seen with his daughter at a hotel in Beverly Hills, according to police, who said Perry was considered a potential flight risk because he is a British national, comes from an affluent family and has access to private aircraft.

City News Service