Perris foster family accused of abusing Turpin girls pleads not guilty

Turpin siblings case: Results of investigation into siblings’ allegations of neglect by county delayed

The results of the investigation into the alleged abuse the 13 Turpin siblings experienced under the care of Riverside County has been delayed until at least the end of May.

PERRIS, Calif. - A Perris foster care couple and their adult daughter accused of abusing two girls rescued from a home they say their parents had turned into a prison for them and their siblings pleaded not guilty Friday to felony charges.

Marcelino Camacho Olguin, 63, Rosa Armida Olguin, 58, and Lennys Giovanna Olguin, 37, were arrested and charged in November with nearly a dozen offenses, including child cruelty, false imprisonment and witness intimidation.

Marcelino Olguin was additionally charged with multiple counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old. The trio were arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Sean Crandell, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 6 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Marcelino Olguin is free on a $200,000 bond, while Rosa and Lennys Olguin are each free on $50,000 bail.

According to court papers, two of the girls belonging to David Allen Turpin and his wife, Louise Ann Turpin, were placed with the foster care parents and their daughter in 2018, within a few months of their removal from the Turpin home in the same city. The Turpin girls were identified only as Jane Does in the criminal complaint.

It alleges that Marcelino Olguin fixed his attention on the sisters, while another girl, identified only by the initials "J.P.," was physically abused by the defendants, but not sexually assaulted. The alleged offenses occurred between April 2018 and March 2021.

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According to investigators, Marcelino allegedly kissed the victims and told them not to wear undershirts. There were other alleged acts of touching the children, whom the defendants also encouraged to fight, according to court documents.

The Turpin girls were told that if they did not comply with the defendants' demands, they would not be able to see their older siblings again, court papers allege.

The defendants have no documented prior felony convictions. It is unclear how long they had been designated foster parents in the county's dependent care system, which has been under intense scrutiny since the allegations surfaced, as well as other evidence of mismanagement by the county's Child Protective Services Department and Office of the Public Guardian.

The Board of Supervisors in October hired former U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson and staff attorneys from his Los Angeles-based law firm to conduct an investigation of the agencies, which is expected to conclude in May.

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An ABC documentary broadcast in November found that life had not improved much for most of the 13 Turpin siblings after they were removed from their parents' residence in January 2018. At the time, their ages ranged from 2 to 29.

The documentary featured District Attorney Mike Hestrin, whose staff have remained in contact with the Turpin children. Hestrin said multiple victims were "living in squalor."

"They're living in crime-ridden neighborhoods. There's money for their education. They can't access it," Hestrin said. "This is unimaginable to me, that we could have the very worst case of child abuse I've ever seen, and then we would then not be able to get it together to give them basic needs."

David Turpin, now 59, and Louise Turpin, now 52, were each sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in 2019.

The defendants operated what prosecutors and investigators described as a "house of horrors," keeping some of the children caged or chained most times of the day, forcing them to subsist on peanut butter sandwiches and burritos, making them sleep up to 20 hours daily, and allowing them to shower only once a year.

The parents also engaged in repeated physical abuse, resulting in injuries. The conditions were uncovered in January 2018 when one of the Turpin girls, then-17-year-old Jordan Turpin, escaped through a window and called 911.

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