Father Charged With Kidnapping Daughter

A British man from Santa Monica who vanished on Christmas Eve with his 2-year-old daughter from the Valley during a supervised visit was charged Wednesday with kidnapping and child stealing.

The pair were found in Palm Springs on Monday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sergio C. Tapia II ordered Jack Perry, 31, to be held in lieu of $1 million bail while awaiting arraignment on Monday, Jan. 4.

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.

Deputy District Attorney Whelma Llanos told the judge that the criminal complaint -- which charges Perry with the two felony counts -- will be amended to add three misdemeanor counts of violating a court order that have already been filed by the City Attorney’s Office in a separate case.

Perry has no-bail warrants from Florida and Nevada, the 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, who has remained behind bars since his arrest Monday night, is a resident of the Santa Monica area, and the child’s mother lives in the San Fernando Valley.

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.

Police received a tip Monday night from a citizen who saw a police flier on the tot’s disappearance and recalled seeing the father and daughter in Palm Springs, said Officer Ricardo Hernandez of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section.

Detectives at the LAPD’s Van Nuys station called the Palm Springs Police Department, whose officers found the father and daughter about 9:30 p.m. Monday in an apartment that Jack Perry had rented under a fictitious name, Hernandez said.

The girl was subsequently reunited with her mother, who held her daughter in her arms during a Tuesday afternoon news conference 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,” Elise Perry said.

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

Photo: Jack and Lucia Perry via LAPD