A family in California was given a sentence for their part in the long-term abuse of many foster children, some of whom had been victimized by horrible abuse from their birth parents.
Marcelino Olguin, 65, pleaded guilty in September to four counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old, three counts of lewd acts on a child smaller than 14, and one count of false imprisonment and injuring a child. An Orange County judge told him on Friday that he would be locked up for the next seven years.
“Today’s sentencing is a big step toward justice for the victims who were abused in unimaginable ways,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement after the sentencing. “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.”
In some parts of Southern California, these kids are famous for growing up in a place called “House of Horrors.” But for many of them, the next parts of their lives did not get better.
A report from The Associated Press says that a statement from one of the children was read out loud during the sentencing process.
“All I wanted was to finally have a loving family and get over my trauma, but I did not get those things,” the victim’s advocate reads from the statement.
Twelve of Louise and David Turpin’s thirteen children were abused for years. In 2019, they were given jail terms of 25 years to life. Authorities said the couple made the kids live in filth, chained some of them to their beds, fed them nothing, and didn’t teach them anything.
One of the girls said her mom hit her because she watched a Justin Bieber video. Also, she said that her father had raped her since she was 12 years old.
At the same time, starting in 2018, the Olguin family took in five of the younger Turpin children. They lived with Olguin, Rosa Olguin, their grown-up daughter Lennys Olguin, and Olguin’s wife.
Police in Riverside County arrested the three people in March 2021 on charges of crimes related to the alleged sexual and physical abuse of their foster children.
It is said that the Olguins abused four other foster children in addition to the five children from Turpin.
Two of the Turpin children sued Riverside County, the foster care agency that put them with the Olguins, and dozens of other people who were not named in the case that was filed in July 2022.
The brothers said their new foster parents abused them physically and mentally all the time, and often in worse ways.
The Olguin family reportedly punished the kids by making them sit outside by themselves “for many hours at a time” and telling them about how their biological parents abused them.
They also told them they would be sent back to their biological parents and told them to commit suicide. The kids were also said to have been made to “eat too much food, which caused eating disorders,” and to “eat until they started to vomit.”
The claim says, “When they started to vomit, the Olguins made them eat their own vomit.”
The suit also says that the Olguins hit the kids in the face with their shoes. The dad was said to have abused his kids sexually.
Police would agree with at least some of those claims.
Marcelino Olguin raped the kids at least 50 times, told them they were hot, and told them they shouldn’t wear undershirts, according to investigators. and kissed them against their will and pulled a child on top of him.
The lawsuit says that the people in charge of child safety should have known or did know what was going on in the Olguin home.
There is a lawsuit that says the defendants knew they were not fit to be foster parents, especially for children as vulnerable as the plaintiffs, because Mr. and Ms. O. had a history of abusing and neglecting children badly when they were in their care.
Defendants knew about reports that Mr. and Mrs. O and their adult daughter had abused and neglected children. That information did not, however, lead the suspects to act.
Rosa and Lennys Olguin have already admitted to hurting children. They were given four years of probation.
The case is still going on.
