Almost all of the 13 children of David and Louise Turpin endured years of torture, neglect and psychological harm before they escaped from their Perris home in 2018, prosecutors say.
But the six minor children subsequently placed in the foster home of Marcelino, Rosa and Lennys Olguin suffered even more nightmarish abuse there in their three-year stay than they did trapped with their parents largely out of public view for many years longer, the attorneys representing the six in two lawsuits against Riverside County and a foster placement agency said at a news conference Monday. Oct. 21.
Attorneys Roger Booth and Elan Zektser spoke near the Riverside County Hall of Justice where the Turpin parents were sentenced in 2019 for their crimes and the Olguins were sentenced on Friday. The attorneys also said the lawsuits filed two years ago seeking unspecified damages and alleging that the defendants failed to protect the Turpins could go to trial late next summer.
Unlike the Turpins, who had pleaded guilty to torture, false imprisonment and child endangerment, one of the Olguins — 65-year-old Marcelino Olguin — admitted to seven counts of a sexual assault charge, lewd acts on a minor.
“What happened in that home is worse than what happened in their biological parents’ home,” Zektser said. “So a number of them are extremely relieved that the Olguins will not do this to another child.”
The attorneys relayed pointed comments from the youngest Turpins, who are now, except for one, adults. The Turpins were critical of how Riverside County Child Protective Services caseworkers monitored their safety and investigated reports of abuse, and of ChildNet, the state-licensed business that placed them with the Olguins.
“They felt the county and ChildNet were worse than the Olguins themselves,” Zektser said. “They had been told over and over again, ‘You are safe. We got you, trust us,’ and then they were placed here. With a child molester.”
Booth did acknowledge that CPS had difficulty obtaining access to ChildNet records as noted by former federal Judge Stephen Larson in his 2022 report on the county’s “failed” support of the Turpins following their escape.
County Department of Social Services spokeswoman C.L. Lopez said in a written statement Monday that the county no longer contracts with ChildNet, which in 2023 changed its name to Foster Family Network.
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