Parents in Perris torture case will be arraigned on 88 charges Friday

Perris torture defendants David and Louise Turpin are due back in Riverside County Superior Court on Friday, Aug. 3, for a hearing at which they will be re-arraigned.

One count of child endangerment was dropped at the preliminary hearing in June when Judge Bernard J. Schwartz ruled that the youngest of the Turpins’ 13 children, age 2, did not appear severely malnourished.

The Turpins now face a collective 88 counts against them, all felonies: 12 counts each of torture and 12 counts each of false imprisonment, eight counts each of child abuse and seven counts each of cruelty to a dependent adult. David Turpin, 56, is additionally charged with eight counts of perjury and one count of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old. Louise Turpin, 50, is also charged with one count of felony assault.

No motions or plea forms have been filed since the June 21 preliminary hearing, at which the 911 call of a 17-year-old girl who escaped was played. If the Turpins waive the reading of all 88 charges Friday, the hearing could consist of their new not-guilty pleas and the setting of a tentative trial date — a process that could last five minutes.

The Turpins are alleged to have shackled and starved their children, who at the time of the Jan. 14 arrests ranged in age from 2 to 29. Prosecutors say the children were forced to wear soiled clothes and were restricted to one shower per year.

All of it amounted to torture, prosecutors say, in a case that has received worldwide attention.

Neighbors and relatives said they knew nothing about the crimes that were alleged. The parents largely kept the children out of sight, creating a private school — which prosecutors say was a sham — to educate the kids.

The Turpins remain jailed at Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, where bail has been set at $12 million each. They previously pleaded not guilty to all charges.