John Jefferson
Marcelino Olguin (KABC/YouTube)
A foster father who took in members of the Turpin family, children who survived horrific abuse they suffered at the hands of their birth parents, pleaded guilty to assaulting the kids.
Marcelino Olguin entered a guilty plea for four counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old, three counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14, and one count each of false imprisonment and injuring a child, the East Bay Times reported. Olguin faces seven years in prison. His wife Rosa and their daughter Lennys pleaded guilty to three counts of willful child cruelty, false imprisonment and intimidating a witness, the newspaper reported. They are set to a four-year suspended sentence and probation.
Biological parents Louise and David Turpin were previously sentenced to 25-to-life in prison for abusing 12 of their 13 children in a case dubbed the “House of Horrors“. Authorities said the couple forced the kids to live in squalid conditions, and chained some of them to their beds. One of the girls said mother Louise Turpin choked her for watching a Justin Bieber video, and that David Turpin sexually abused her since age 12.
After their parents’ arrest, five of the minor Turpin children were sent to live with the Olguins. Unfortunately, life did not get any better for the children. Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC reported investigators determined Marcelino Olguin sexually molested the children at least 50 times, called them sexy and “recommended they not wear undershirts … and forced kissed them and pulled a minor on top of him.”
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Despite knowing about their past abuse, the Olguins reportedly forced the children to stay in their rooms and equipped the doors with door chimes to alert them when the kids entered and left the rooms. They also forced the siblings to sit in a “circle confession talk.”
In addition to the five Turpin kids, the Olguins abused four other children. As Law&Crime previously reported, the Turpin kids have filed at least one lawsuit against Riverside County and the foster care agency that placed them with the Olguins.
Louise and David Turpin renew their wedding vows in a 2013 ceremony. The faces of their children are censored, except for Jennifer and Jordan Turpin, who spoke on camera with 20/20.
In the complaint filed against Riverside County, ChildNet Youth and Family Services, and 50 unnamed defendants, two of the Turpin siblings allege multiple violations of the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, negligence, and breaches of duties as they endured continued abuse at the hands of their new guardians. The siblings are identified in the document as Jane Doe 5 and John Doe 6 to protect their privacy as victims of childhood abuse and neglect.
According to the complaint, after the children were rescued from the “House of Horrors” where they had virtually no contact with the outside world, the county and ChildNet placed the plaintiffs and four of their siblings with a married couple that ChildNet certified as foster parents. The siblings alleged, however, that the married couple, identified in the complaint as “Mr. and Mrs. O,” subjected them to continued and often times worse forms of physical and mental abuse.
The children lived with Mr. and Mrs. O and their adult daughter from early 2018 until the three were arrested by deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office in March 2021 for crimes stemming from the alleged sexual and physical abuse of foster children, according to the complaint.
“Defendants knew that they were unfit to be foster parents, particularly for children as vulnerable as plaintiffs, because Mr. and Ms. O. had a prior history of physically and emotionally abusing children as well as severely neglecting children who had been placed in their care,” the complaint says. “Defendants were aware of credible reports of abuse and neglect committed by Mr. and Mrs. O and their adult daughter. However, defendants did not act upon that information.”
The lawsuit remains ongoing.
Jerry Lambe and Alberto Luperon contributed to this report
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