The three members of a Perris foster family accused of abusing children in their care, including several of the Turpin children who previously endured years of torture and neglect at the hands of their parents, pleaded guilty to felony charges in Superior Court in Riverside on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Marcelino Olguin pleaded guilty to four counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old, with the defendant being at least 10 years older; three counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14; one count of false imprisonment; and one count of injuring a child.
Olguin will serve seven years in state prison after he is sentenced, his attorney, Paul Grech, said on Thursday.
“He just wanted to bring closure to his family, and this was the best way to do that,” Grech said.
Olguin will be required to register with the state as a sex offender, said Thalia Hayden, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, which negotiated the pleas.
Olguin’s wife, Rosa, and their daughter, Lennys, also entered guilty pleas.
Both admitted to three counts of willful child cruelty and one count each of false imprisonment and intimidating a witness. Rosa Olguin also pleaded guilty to grand theft, Hayden said.
They both face sentences of four years of probation and a four-year suspended sentence. Lennys Olguin will also be sentenced to 150 days in the sheriff’s work-release program; Rosa Olguin faces 120 days in the work-release program, Hayden said.
All three are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 18.
The Olguins were charged in November of 2021 after a Riverside County sheriff’s investigator wrote in a sworn statement to obtain an arrest warrant that the Olguins sexually and psychologically abused children in their care. The children were forced to eat their own vomit, sit alone for hours and were told they should kill themselves, the investigator wrote.
Two lawsuits say that six of those children were members of the Turpin family who had been placed at the home by the county through the ChildNet Youth and Family Services agency. The county no longer contracts with ChildNet. An investigation by retired federal Judge Stephen Larson found that the county failed to sufficiently monitor children placed by ChildNet and noted that the county had difficulty obtaining records from ChildNet.
“Immediately after being placed at the Olguins’, the three defendants pressure-questioned the siblings about their traumatic past,” the investigator wrote.
“They forced the siblings to participate in a ‘circle confession talk,’ ” the investigator wrote. “The siblings were forced to admit to their past sibling abuses, which their biological parents forced them to commit. The Olguins told the siblings non-participation would result in not seeing or visiting with their older siblings in the future.”
A 5-year-old, the investigator’s affidavit said, was given sleeping pills and then forced to stand in a small, square area marked by blue tape. An Olguin would ring a bell, spray her with water and yell at her to keep her awake. She would be locked in her bedroom for nine hours a day, according to the affidavit. It was unclear whether the girl was a Turpin.
The Turpins were taken in at the Scenic Way home in Perris in April 2018, three months after the 13 Turpin children, ages 2 to 29, were rescued from captivity after one snuck out of their Perris home and called 911.
Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to 14 felony counts each in a case that shocked the nation and drew interest from around the globe.
The case also prompted Riverside County to commission Judge Larson’s report on the county’s social-services agencies that concluded that the county “failed” the Turpins and other children. County officials have said they are making improvements to the system.
