Turpin Children Sue Foster Home, California County for Severe Abuse After 2018 Rescue

Turpin children Riverside County ChildNet Youth and Family Services Marcelino and Rosa Olguin foster parents foster care foster system sexual and physical abuse Olguin couple David and Louise Turpin child abuse

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald Jul 22, 08:40 am

Photo: (Photo : FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

The Turpin children expected their lives to be better after their rescue from abuse and captivity by their parents in 2018. However, six of the kids recently filed a lawsuit for the continued abuse they experienced at the foster home that took them in and a California county that should have looked out for their welfare.

The New York Post reported that the younger Turpin children filed two lawsuits against Riverside County and the foster care agency, ChildNet Youth and Family Services. Their complaint underscored that these entities were aware of the children's sexual and physical abuse in the care of Marcelino and Rosa Olguin, their foster parents.

Aside from the sexual and physical abuse, the children claimed that the couple forced them to eat vomit and were repeatedly told that they should take their life. Their complaints also mentioned that the officials who had to look out for their welfare did not report what was happening at their foster homes to the police.

Olguin couple under trial, agencies should be next

According to ABC News, the Olguin couple has been charged and arrested for the abuse that spanned three years. They have paid bail after pleading not guilty to the accusations during their arraignment in December 2021. Their trial is still ongoing.

The new lawsuit against ChildNet and Riverside County, however, comes after the conclusion of an independent eight-might probe into the handling of the Turpin case. In November 2021, the eldest Turpin child, Jennifer Turpin, and her sister, Jordan Turpin, appeared on "20/20" to speak about their continued struggles after the state took them in and arrested their parents.

Elan Zektsersaid, the lawyer for two of the older children who have now opted out of foster care, said that both ChildNet and Riverside County knew the Olguins were not fit for caring for abused kids because they also have a history of abuse and neglect. Yet, the Turpin siblings were still placed with the couple.

Roger Booth, the lawyer for four of the younger siblings, told the Post that the Turpin children were inflicted with trauma after trauma because of this serious oversight from the foster care or the county. After their parents, the people they thought would care for them also failed the kids.

"It's going to take some time for them to recover and learn to trust people because at this point, there's been very few adults that they've been able to trust," Booth said.

Four of the 13 kids are still in the foster care system as minors. The rest of the siblings are now living in a new house together.

What happened to the Turpin parents?

David and Louise Turpin initially claimed they were not guilty of torturing and abusing their children, despite depriving them of food, basic hygiene, and education. But by February 2019, the couple changed their plea to guilty, per The Sun.

Two months later, a judge handed down their sentence of life imprisonment at separate facilities. Louise is in a women's prison in Chowchilla while her husband is in Corcoran's state prison.