California foster father sentenced to seven years in prison for abusing child torture victims

A California man was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison for abusing foster children he was assigned to care for in his home, including some who had previously been tortured by their parents.

Marcelino Olguin, 65, was handcuffed and led away by sheriff’s deputies in a Riverside courtroom after a brief sentencing hearing.

Olguin previously pleaded guilty to lewd acts on a child, false imprisonment and injury to a child, while his wife Rosa and adult daughter Lennys pleaded guilty to child cruelty.

The women were each sentenced to four years probation.

“Today’s sentencing represents a significant step toward bringing justice to the victims who suffered unimaginable abuse,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement.

“These children were placed in a vulnerable position after surviving severe trauma, only to be further exploited by someone entrusted with their care.”

The Olguins’ lawyers said the plea agreement allowed the women to avoid prison time.

“My client saved his family,” Paul Grech, Marcelino Olguin’s lawyer, said after the hearing. He declined to discuss the case further.

The Olguin family was tasked with caring for the children after they were rescued from horrifically abusive conditions at their parents’ home in the Southern California community of Perris.

Her parents, David and Louise Turpin, pleaded guilty in 2019 to torture and years of abuse, including shackling some of their 13 children, starving them and providing them with minimal education.

The Turpin parents were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

On Friday, a victim’s attorney read to the court a statement written by one of the Turpin children who stayed at the Olguins’ home.

“All I wanted was to finally have a loving family and recover from my trauma, but unfortunately I didn’t get that,” the statement said.

The victim, who was not named, is still recovering and learning to trust, but is forgiving the family in an act of faith, the statement said.

A report found that the welfare system had failed the Turpin children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, when they were rescued by authorities from their parents’ home after their 17-year-old sister fled and called 911.

Eventually, six of the children were placed with the Olguins.

Attorneys representing some of the Turpin children filed a civil lawsuit against Riverside County, alleging the Olguins abused minors in their care.

The couple hit the children in the face with sandals, pulled their hair, forced them to eat their own vomit and made them sit in a circle and recount the trauma they experienced in their parents’ home, lawyers write in the filed lawsuit in 2022.

The lawsuit also accused Marcelino Olguin of sexual abuse.

Kia Feyzjou, who represented Lennys Olguin, said some of the allegations may have been “a little exaggerated” but it would have been difficult to win a case with so much public scrutiny.

Doug Ecks, who represented Rosa Olguin, said his client and her daughter could be viewed as enablers but had not been accused of abuse to the same extent.

“When there was an order that didn’t provide for custody, it seemed to be in everyone’s best interest,” Ecks said.