6 Turpin siblings sue Riverside County, foster care agency over placement with family that had been reported for "abuse and neglect"
Six of the 13 Turpin siblings – who had already suffered tremendously at the hands of their own parents – are suing Riverside County and a Long Beach-based foster care agency for placing them in a household where their attorney alleges they were sexually abused and tormented psychologically.
Two lawsuits filed against both Riverside County Child Protective Services and ChildNet allege the foster parents that the six minor Turpin children were placed with had already been the subject of "credible reports of abuse and neglect."
"The 13 Turpin children endured some of the most sickening child abuse the county has ever seen," Los Angeles attorney Elan Zekster said. "After these vulnerable children were freed, they were placed by the county through ChildNet into a known abusive foster home. It is beyond shocking that the county and ChildNet let these kids get horrifically abused once again. Our communities should be appalled.
The siblings' parents, David and Louise Turpin, were each sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in 2019 after admitting multiple child cruelty counts. Prosecutors called their home a "house of horrors," after they were found to be keeping some of their children caged or chained most of the day, feeding them a meager diet of peanut butter sandwiches and burritos, making them sleep up to 20 hours daily, and allowing them to shower just once a year. The children also had injuries indicating physical abuse.
The 13 children became wards of the state. In 2018, the underage children came under the supervision of county Child Protective Services, which contracted with ChildNet, also known as Foster Family Network, which placed six of the victims in the Perris home of 63-year-old Marcelino Camacho Olguin, his 58-year-old wife Rosa Armida Olguin, and their adult daughter, 37-year-old Lennys Giovanna Olguin. All three Olguins were charged last November with nearly a dozen offenses, including child cruelty, false imprisonment, and witness intimidation for alleged mistreatment of the Turpin children.
According to the complaint filed by Zekster, who represents two of the adult Turpin children, and litigator Roger Booth, who is representing four of the younger children, several of the Turpin girls were objects of lascivious attention from Marcelino Olguin, who was described as "grabbing and fondling buttocks, legs, breasts" and "kissing them on their mouths and making sexually suggestive comments." The complaint also alleged the Olguins "pulling their hair, hitting them with a belt and striking their heads."
The abuse against the children also included "making plaintiffs sit in a circle and recount, in detail, the horrors that they had experienced while living with their parents"; "verbally abusing plaintiffs, cursing at them, and telling them that they were worthless and should commit suicide"; "forcing them to eat until they began to vomit," and compelling them "to eat their own vomit."
The children allege in their lawsuit that the abuse continued until the spring of 2021, when a sheriff's investigation resulted in the Olguins' arrest. All three have been released after posting six-figure bonds, as they await trial.
The six siblings have since been emancipated, or placed in alternate foster care homes, where no problems have been reported.
