Grandfather to Be Tried on Child Endangerment Charges

A 76-year-old retired electrician will stand trial for allowing his granddaughter to be chained to a bed in a filthy home where she became emaciated after being fed little more than canned spaghetti and milk, a judge ruled Thursday.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Christian Thierbach ruled there was sufficient evidence to try Loren Bess on charges of felony child endangerment and false imprisonment.

Bess was scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 8.

He and his daughter, Cynthia Topper, were arrested in Norco last September after authorities found Topper’s daughter, who was 6 at the time, tethered at the waist to a bed in a room with boarded-up windows in a house packed with junk.

Bess remains free on $250,000 bond. At Thursday’s preliminary hearing, his lawyer, Darryl Exum, argued that Bess was not responsible for the girl’s care.

“There’s nothing showing my client had care, custody or control of Bettye,” Exum said.

Even if Bess was not the girl’s legal guardian, he had an obligation to get help for her, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Spira.

The prosecutor called two sheriff’s deputies and a pediatrician who first examined the girl when she was brought to Loma Linda University Hospital.

Bettye weighed 32 pounds and was wearing only a diaper at the time. Her weight was average for a 3-year-old, said Dr. Claire Sheridan.

Her hair was matted and her teeth were green and covered with plaque, Sheridan said.

“Bettye’s skin was quite remarkable in that it was pale and actually translucent. . . . You could see the veins running all the way up her arms,” she added.

The girl, now in the care of Riverside County, has gained about 20 pounds, she added.

Bettye’s mother is serving six years in prison after pleading guilty in March to one count of felony child endangerment.

Bess told authorities he designed the tether used to restrain the girl to a bedpost, said Christopher Brown, a sheriff’s investigator.

Bess told investigators that his granddaughter was restrained at least 20 hours a day and that Topper fed the girl canned spaghetti and milk once or twice daily. “He said that she liked it,” Brown said.

If convicted, Bess faces up to nine years in prison.