A California man was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for abusing some foster children he had assigned to care for in his home, including some of the Turpin siblings who had already been tortured by their own parents.
Marcelino Olguin, 65, was handcuffed and led away by sheriff’s deputies in a courtroom in Riverside after a brief sentencing hearing.
Olguin pleased guilty in September to lewd acts on a child, false imprisonment and injuring a child, while his wife, Rosa Olguin, and their adult daughter, Lennys, also had earlier pleaded guilty to child cruelty.
The women were each sentenced to four years of formal probation.
Marcelino Olguin, 65, seen right was sentenced to seven years in jail while his daughter, Lennys, and wife, Rosa, both seen left, were sentenced to four years of formal probation
Marcelino Olguin, 65, was handcuffed and led away by sheriff’s deputies in a courtroom in Riverside after being sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for abusing foster children
His wife, Rosa Olguin, and their adult daughter, Lennys, also pleaded guilty to child cruelty
Olguin will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The also judge ordered that the Olguin to not make contact with any of the nine victims, including six of the youngest Turpin siblings.
The six had. been placed with the Olguin family at various times beginning in 2018. Four were still with the family at the time of their arrest.
Both Marcelino and Rosa cried during their sentencing.
‘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.
‘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 statement read.
Marcelino, Rosa and Lennys Olguin are pictured outside court in April 2023
Olguin, seen here in 2022, will now spend the next seven years behind bars as part of a plea
Marcelino and Rosa Olguin are pictured at their arraignment in 2021 for child abuse charges against multiple foster children in December
‘We are committed to holding accountable those who prey on innocent children. Our office remains steadfast in pursuing justice for all victims of abuse and ensuring that those who violate the trust placed in them are held accountable.’
Attorneys for the Olguins said the plea arrangement allowed for the women to be spared prison time.
‘My client saved his family,’ Paul Grech, Marcelino Olguin’s lawyer, said after the hearing. He declined to discuss the case further.
The Olguin family was tasked with caring for the children after they were rescued from horribly abusive conditions in their parents’ home in the Southern California community of Perris.
Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, pleaded guilty in 2019 to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 biological children, starving them and providing only a minimal education.
The Turpin parents were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
On Friday, a victim’s advocate read to the court a statement prepared by one of the Turpin children who had stayed in the Olguins’ home.
‘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 said.
The victim, who was not named, is still recovering and learning to trust, but forgives the family in an act of faith, the statement said.
A 2022 report found that the social service system ‘failed’ the Turpin children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29 when they were rescued by authorities from their parents’ home after their 17-year-old sister escaped and called 911.
‘Some of the younger Turpin children were placed with caregivers who were later charged with child abuse,’ the 630-page report found. ‘Some of the older siblings experienced periods of housing instability and food insecurity as they transitioned to independence.’
Eventually six of the children were placed with the Olguins.
Attorneys representing some of the Turpin children filed a civil lawsuit against Riverside County alleging the Olguins abused minors in their care.
David (left) and Louise Turpin (right) pleaded guilty to 14 counts of torture and other abuse in 2019 and were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison
David Turpin is now in protective custody in Corcoran State Prison. His wife is serving out her sentence in the Central California Women’s Prison
The Turpin family began taking trips to Las Vegas and renewed their vows in an Elvis Chapel in 2011, 2013, and 2015
Deputies testified that the children said they were only allowed to shower once a year
The couple hit the children in the face with sandals, pulled their hair, forced them to eat their own vomit and made them sit in a circle and recount the trauma they had experienced in their parents’ home, the attorneys wrote in the lawsuit filed in 2022.
The suit, filed a lawsuit against Riverside County and a private foster care agency called ChildNet, also accused Marcelino Olguin of sexual abuse.
The suits alleges that the foster agency knew the family was unfit to be foster parents because of ‘a prior history of abusing and neglecting children who had been placed in their care’ and failed to act once they were alerted to the allegations of abuse.
Kia Feyzjou, who represented Lennys Olguin, said some of the allegations may have been a ‘little exaggerated’ but winning a case with so much public scrutiny would have been difficult.
Doug Ecks, representing Rosa Olguin, said his client and her daughter might be seen as enablers but didn’t face charges of abuse to the same extent.
‘When there was a resolution that involved no custody, that seemed in the best interest of everybody,’ Ecks said.
