Six of the 13 Turpin siblings who were placed into foster childcare after being rescued from their sadistic parents’ captivity are seeking a settlement from their providers, claiming they were sexually and mentally abused by their foster parents.
“Some of the kids will tell you that what they experienced in the foster home was even worse than what they experienced at the hands of their parents,” Elan Zektser, the attorney representing the Turpin children, told The Sun on Tuesday.
The six youngest Turpin children had filed a lawsuit against Riverside County in California and a private foster care agency, ChildNet Youth and Family Services, in July 2022.
The children claimed they were physically, sexually, and emotionally abused while under the care of their foster parents, Marcelino and Rosa Olguin, who were both charged after the allegations were made in the civil lawsuit.
Marcelino Olguin was arrested in Jan. 2021 and has been charged with 13 counts, including a lewd act with a child and willful child cruelty, for allegedly victimizing two of the siblings.
His wife, Rosa Olguin, 58, and the couple’s daughter Lennys, 37, were also arrested and charged with fraud and witness intimidation.
The alleged creep foster father is accused of sexually abusing the children by “grabbing and fondling their buttocks, legs, and breasts, kissing them on the mouth and making sexually suggestive comments,” according to the complaint obtained by The Post in 2022.
“The thing that kills me most is that when they were in the Turpin home, they were told they didn’t deserve to be like everyone else, that they were bad kids, bad people – that’s what their parents put on them,” Zektser explained.
The lawsuit also alleged their foster father would tell children to kill themselves because they were only targeted by their parents as they were “unlovable.”
“Then the foster family used that against them and compounded those feelings, telling them, ‘No one wants you, look at what your parents did, they were right: you are nothing,’” Zektser told the outlet.
Included in the heart-breaking allegation against the foster family was the children would be force-fed until they threw up only to make them eat the vomit.
“When you have enough people in your life telling you that you are nobody and nothing and don’t deserve what everyone else has in life, it has a profound effect on your psyche,” Zektser said.
The members of the Olguin family have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Their criminal case against them is still pending.
The sibling’s story first captivated and disturbed the nation after Jordan Turpin, then 17, escaped her family’s “house of horrors” in the middle of the night on Jan. 14, 2018, when she bravely called 911 to report her parents and save her siblings.
Police found the Turpin children — whose ages ranged from 2 to 29 — chained up, malnourished, and abused at the hands of their parents, David and Louise Turpin.
The cold-blooded couple was arrested, and later both pleaded guilty to 14 counts of abuse. Both parents were sentenced to life in prison in 2019.
The Turpin siblings spent weeks in the hospital before Riverside County and ChildNet placed them in the Olguin-run foster home.
Brett Lewis, a spokesman for ChildNet Youth and Family Services, said the company stands by its record of serving foster youth following the 2022 lawsuit.
“At this time, our organization is not at liberty to disclose facts or discuss the allegations made in the complaint,” Lewis said. “We look forward to providing the facts at the appropriate time in court. Our agency has been serving California’s most vulnerable, traumatized youth for over 50 years. We have a strong track record of providing excellent care and continue to demonstrate our commitment to these children.”
With the six youngest Turpin siblings now seeking a massive settlement over their alleged abuse in the foster care system, Zektser said the children having to deal with this abuse twice had shocked him to his core.
“I used to be the head of the sexual assault unit and child molester unit in Riverside County, so I’ve seen the worst of the worst,” the lawyer said.
“And to be honest with you I’ve seen worse than what happened at the Turpin home, but I have never in my wildest dreams seen what happened to them once, and then a county and law enforcement get involved and then put them back in the same kind of place for a second time.”
The sibling’s attorney would not provide a specific number he was seeking in the suit against Riverside County and ChildNet, but said the amount would have to be “shocking” due to the abuse his clients faced.
“The best way to effectuate change is through the pocketbook. I really believe that I’ve seen it firsthand,” he told the outlet.
