John and Linda Dollar have pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated child abuse after five of their seven children told authorities they had been tortured, and some of the children were starved. Three of the children, ages 12 to 17, were severely malnourished.

The Dollars were arrested last month in Utah and are being held without bail in the Citrus County Jail. They face 30 years to life in prison if convicted at trial.

The children were placed in foster care after the abuse allegations surfaced on Jan. 21, when the Dollars' 16-year-old son - weighing less than 60 pounds - was taken to the hospital with a head wound and red marks on his neck.

Following the hospitalization, sheriff's Detective Lisa Wall spoke with each child to learn about their situation. Transcripts of those interviews were released Thursday.

The couple's 14-year-old son told Wall that he and his siblings would sleep in the closet of their parent's master bedroom as part of punishment for stealing food. He talked of them being punished though spankings with belts, paddles, switches and whips; getting kicked if they were caught stealing; and on at least one occasion getting struck with a cattle prod.

The 14-year-old also said all five of the children were choked until they either blacked out or couldn't talk. Along with being taped to chairs, chains had been wrapped around their stomachs and their father would hang them until they blacked out, the boy said.

He told Wall of having his toenails ripped off with pliers, saying it hurt ``very bad.'' He said he would scream to make them stop.

Wall met with another boy who talked of similar punishment, saying it happened while the family lived in Tennessee. He told that he and his siblings would sometimes go three days without eating.