California foster dad sentenced to 7 years for abusing child torture
victims
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[October 19, 2024]
By AMY TAXIN
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A California man was sentenced Friday to seven
years in prison for abusing foster children he had assigned to care for
in his home, including some who had been previously tortured by their
parents.
Marcelino Olguin, 65, was handcuffed and led away by sheriff's deputies
in a courtroom in Riverside after a brief sentencing hearing. Olguin
previously pleaded guilty to lewd acts on a child, false imprisonment
and injuring a child, while his wife, Rosa, and adult daughter, Lennys,
pleaded guilty to child cruelty. The women were each sentenced to four
years of formal probation.
“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."
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 children and 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.
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Neighbors write down messages for the Turpin's children on the front
door of the home of David and Louise Turpin where police arrested
the couple accused of holding 13 children captive in Perris, Calif.,
Jan. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
“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 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. 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. 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 also accused Marcelino Olguin of sexual 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,
who represented 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.
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