Turpin children abused by foster family, forced to eat their own vomit: trial

The Turpin siblings, who made headlines in 2018 when they were rescued from their parents’ California ‘house of horrors’, were allegedly abused by their foster family – who forced them to eat their own vomit and told them to kill themselves, according to two new lawsuits.

Six of the 13 youngest Turpin children filed lawsuits Tuesday against Riverside County and a private foster care agency, ChildNet Youth and Family Services.

The children claim they were physically, sexually and emotionally abused in the care of their adoptive parents, Marcelino and Rosa Olguin – and the agencies charged with protecting them knew and failed to intervene.

Marcelino and Rosa Olguin were not named in the civil suit, but Riverside County prosecutors charged the couple earlier this year on multiple counts of abuse and neglect. They pleaded not guilty.

« It was just trauma, inflicted on trauma, that really made it worse because just when they thought maybe their life was going to get better, it really wasn’t, » said Roger Booth, an attorney representing four of the siblings. told the Post on Wednesday.

« It will take them some time to recover and learn to trust people, because at this point there are very few adults they have been able to trust. »

According to the complaint obtained by The Post, Marcelino Olguin sexually abused the children by « grabbing and stroking their buttocks, legs and breasts, kissing them on the mouth and making sexually suggestive comments. »

The siblings also allege the Olguins forced them to eat ‘excessive’ amounts of food – then made them eat their own vomit if they vomited their meals. The abuse reportedly caused some of the children to have eating disorders.

The family also berated the traumatized children, telling them they were « worthless, would never be loved, and should kill themselves, » according to the lawsuit.

“The defendants owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs to protect them from abuse and neglect. This duty arose from the Defendants’ role as a foster family agency that certified Mr. and Mrs. O. as foster parents, placed the plaintiffs in the home, and supervised the plaintiffs while they lived in the home. home, including visiting them weekly,” according to the complaint.

“Defendants breached this duty of care by, among other things, failing to report foster parent abuse and neglect to child protective services or law enforcement, actively withholding such information from authorities, by placing the plaintiffs in the home and allowing the plaintiffs to remain in the home for three years despite knowledge of the ongoing abuse and neglect described above.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Olguins and their daughter, Lennys, beat them with belts, pulled their hair and made them recount the sickening abuse they suffered at the hands of their parents, David and Louise Turpin.

Elan Zekster, an attorney representing the two older Turpin siblings who have filed a separate, similar lawsuit, said Wednesday that the continued abuse they have suffered « should make everyone angry. »

« These children who have been chained to their beds for a large majority of their lives are finally free, and then the county places them with ChildNet and puts them in another position where they are still being abused, » Zekster told « Good Morning America from ABC on Wednesday. .

Riverside County and ChildNet Youth and Family Services did not return phone calls from The Post on Wednesday.

Marcelino Olguin, 63, was charged with three counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, four counts of lewd acts on a child between the ages of 14 and 15 when the accused is 10 years or older more than the victim, one count of inflicting injury on a child, three counts of willful cruelty to children and two counts of false imprisonment, according to Riverside County court records.

His wife, Rosa Olguin, 58, faces four counts of child cruelty, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of deterring a witness and one count of inflicting injury on a child and a grand theft over $950, according to court records.

Lennys Olguin, their 37-year-old daughter, has been charged with four counts of child cruelty, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of inflicting injury on a child and deterring a witness.

The Olguins, who are out on bail, will appear in court for a felony settlement conference on August 11.

The 13 Turpin children suffered years of torture and neglect when they were imprisoned by their parents in their home in Perris, California.

The children, aged 2 to 29 at the time, were discovered in 2018 after one of the children escaped from the ‘house of horrors’ and called the police.

Louise and David Turpin were sentenced to life in prison in 2019, and the minor children were placed in the custody of the Public Guardian and the Riverside County Public Human Services Department.