A man in California was given seven years in jail on Friday for abusing foster children who were placed in his home. Some of the children had been abused by their parents before they were placed with him.
There was a short sentencing hearing in Riverside, and then Marcelino Olguin, 65, was handcuffed and led away by sheriff’s officers.
Olguin has already admitted to doing sexy things to a child, keeping a child in jail without a warrant, and hurting a child.
His wife Rosa and adult daughter Lennys have also admitted to being mean to children. Each of the women was given four years of official probation.
“Today’s sentencing is a big step toward giving justice to the victims who were abused in unimaginable ways,” said Mike Hestrin, the district attorney for Riverside County.
“After going through a lot of trauma, these kids were put in a weak position and then taken advantage of by someone who was supposed to be caring for them.”
Lawyers for the Olguins said that the plea deal meant the women would not have to go to jail.
Daniel Olguin’s lawyer, Paul Grech, said after the hearing, “My client saved his family.” He refused to talk about the case any further.
The children were rescued from horribly abusive living situations in their parents’ home in the Southern California town of Perris and were given to the Olguin family to care for.
Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, pleaded guilty in 2019 to torturing and abusing their 13 children for years, keeping some of them chained, starving them, and not giving them much of an education. The parents of Turpin were given a life sentence with the chance of release after 25 years.
A lawyer for the victim read a statement to the court on Friday that was written by one of the Turpin children who had stayed with the Olguins.
“All I wanted was to finally have a loving family and get over my trauma, but I did not get those things,” the statement read. The victim, who was not named, is still getting better and learning to trust again, but the statement said that her faith led her to forgive the family.
A story said that the Turpin children, whose ages ranged from 2 to 29, were not helped by the social service system. They were rescued from their parents’ home by police after their 17-year-old sister escaped and called 911. At last, six of the kids were put with the Olguins.
Some of the Turpin children’s lawyers sued Riverside County in civil court, saying that the Olguins abused children in their care.
In the 2022 case, the lawyers said that the couple hit the kids in the face with sandals, pulled their hair, made them eat their own vomit, and made them sit in a circle and talk about the bad things that happened to them at their parents’ house. In the claim, Marcelino Olguin was also accused of sexual abuse.
Lennys Olguin’s lawyer, Kia Feyzjou, said that some of the accusations may have been “a little exaggerated,” but it would have been hard to win a case that was getting so much attention from the public.
Rosa Olguin’s lawyer, Doug Ecks, said that his client and her daughter could be seen as supporters, but they weren’t being charged with abuse in the same way.
“When there was a solution with no custody, that seemed like it would be best for everyone,” Ecks said.
