John Jefferson
Marcelino Olguin (KABC/YouTube).
A California family has been sentenced for their respective roles in long-running abuse suffered by numerous foster children — who had previously suffered horrific abuse meted out by their birth parents.
In September, Marcelino Olguin, 65, pleaded guilty to 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. On Friday, he was ordered by a judge in Riverside County to spend the next seven years behind bars.
“Today’s sentencing marks a significant step in delivering justice to the victims who endured unimaginable abuse,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement after the sentencing. “These children were placed in a position of vulnerability after surviving intense trauma, only to be further exploited by someone who was entrusted with their care.”
The children in question are well-known in certain Southern California for having grown up in a so-called “House of Horrors.” The next chapters in so many of their lives, however, fared no better.
A statement from one of the children was read during the sentencing hearing, according to a courtroom report by The Associated Press.
“All I wanted was to finally have a loving family and to recover from my trauma, but unfortunately, I did not receive that,” the statement read aloud by a victim’s advocate says.
In 2019, biological parents Louise Turpin and David Turpin were given prison terms of 25 years to life for the years-long abuse of 12 of their 13 children. Authorities said the couple forced the children to live in squalor, chained some of them to their beds, essentially starved them and left them effectively uneducated. One of the girls said her mother choked her for watching a Justin Bieber video. She also said that her father had sexually abused her since she was 12 years old.
Meanwhile, beginning in 2018, the Olguin family took in five of the minor Turpin children. They lived with Olguin, his wife, Rosa Olguin, and their adult daughter, Lennys Olguin.
In March 2021, the trio were arrested by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office for crimes stemming from the alleged sexual and physical abuse of their foster children. In addition to the five Turpin children, the Olguins allegedly abused four other foster children.
More Law&Crime coverage: Foster parents plead not guilty to abusing nine children, possibly including survivors of the ‘House of Horrors’ Turpin family
In July 2022, a lawsuit was filed by two of the Turpin children against Riverside County, the foster care agency that placed them with the Olguins, and dozens of unnamed defendants.
The siblings alleged their new foster parents subjected them to continued and oftentimes worse forms of physical and mental abuse.
The Olguin family allegedly punished the children by forcing them to sit outside alone “for many hours at a time,” recounted the abuse from their biological parents, telling them they would be returned to their biological parents, and urging them to die by suicide. They also allegedly forced the children to “eat excessive amounts of food, which led to eating disorders” and made them “eat until they began to vomit.”
“After they began to vomit, [the Olguins] forced them to eat their own vomit,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also claims the children were slapped in the face with sandals by the Olguins. The father was accused of sexual abuse.
Law enforcement would echo at least some of those allegations.
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.”
Child welfare authorities should have known, or did know, about the state of affairs inside the Olguin home, the lawsuit claims.
“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 lawsuit reads. “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.”
Rosa Olguin and Lennys Olguin previously pleaded guilty to child cruelty. They were sentenced to four years probation.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
Alberto Luperon, Jerry Lambe, and David Harris contributed to this report.
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