6 Turpin children to split $13.5 million lawsuit settlement over placement with abusive Riverside County foster parents

The six Turpin children who escaped torture and captivity in their parents’ Perris home, only to be placed with foster parents whose abuse they said was even worse, will share a $13.5 million lawsuit settlement reached with Riverside County and the foster family agency that placed them.

Riverside County will pay $2.25 million, while ChildNet agreed to pay $11.25 million, according to the settlement agreement obtained by the Southern California News Group on Wednesday, Feb. 4. Those Turpins, five of whom are now adults, will each receive $2.25 million before attorney’s fees.

None of the county’s share of the settlement is covered by insurance, county spokeswoman Brooke Federico said.

Riverside County had contracted with ChildNet to place foster children but cut its ties with the company after the new abuse came to light. Oakwood Legal Group attorney Elan Zektser, who represented two of the Turpins in the lawsuit, said the county had difficulty getting access to the records of ChildNet, and a sheriff’s investigator said ChildNet refused to release records to him.

The announcement of the settlement, which was reached near the end of 2025, comes a day after ABC News aired an interview with three of the Turpins who said they suffered sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of their foster parents.

“Every night they would drink and they would get mean and aggressive toward us,” James Turpin, now 24, told Diane Sawyer in an interview broadcast Tuesday.  “They made me hate myself. At that time, I felt like my life was doomed.”

The six Turpins were all minors at the time they and their seven siblings — 13 in all whose first names begin with the letter J — were rescued in 2018 following years of abuse at the hands of David and Louise Turpin. Sheriff’s deputies found some of them shackled to beds after one, Jordan, snuck out and called 911. The parents are serving sentences of 25 years to life for their crimes.

Three months after they were freed, six were placed with foster parents Marcelino Olguin, his wife, Rosa, and a daughter, Lennys. Of the six, four have been publicly identified — siblings Jordan, James, Jolinda and Julissa.

After one day in the Olguins’ Scenic Way home in Perris, the Turpins knew they were in trouble, even if, because of their sheltered upbringing, they didn’t quite know what was going on.

Julissa Turpin, 19, recalled to Sawyer what happened when she went downstairs to get something to eat and Marcelino was sitting on the couch.

“You’re so sexy,” Turpin recalled Marcelino saying.

Turpin was just 11 years old at the time.

“I didn’t know very much, but I did know that it didn’t feel right,” said Turpin, now 19. “And I did feel very uncomfortable. And it made me feel so unsafe in the home.”

Another time, Turpin said, Marcelino grabbed her by the face and kissed her mouth. She didn’t know how to react, she said, so she didn’t object.

“I really felt God was mad at me for that,” she told Sawyer. “I thought it was my fault. I want to say to all the people, no matter what it is …” At that point, Turpin collapsed into the arms of her sister Jolinda, crying.

“A lot of nights,” said Jolinda, 20, “we wouldn’t sleep because we thought he was going to come into the room.”

Law enforcement, especially a determined sheriff’s investigator, eventually got involved after James ran away to live with his brother and Jordan left the home and contacted a trusted social worker. The Turpins said the abuse suffered in the Olguin home was worse than what they endured from their parents.

Booth Law, representing four Turpins, and Oakwood sued the county and ChildNet in 2022, alleging they failed to protect the children by placing them in a home where the attorneys said there were already suspicions of abuse.

Then, in 2024, Marcelino Olguin was sentenced to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of lewd acts on a minor and other charges. Rosa Olguin and Lennys Olguin were sentenced to serve time in the sheriff’s work-release program after pleading guilty to three counts of willful child cruelty.

The Turpins have spoken infrequently about their ordeals. In 2021, Jennifer, Jordan and Joshua Turpin told ABC News that they had difficulty getting money from a trust fund, adequate food and housing and life-skills services from the county. It wasn’t until the morning before that interview aired that the county announced it was investigating its handling of the case.

That resulted in a probe by former federal Judge Stephen Larson, who, in a 634-page report, said that while the county supported the Turpins, it all too often “failed” them.

Since then, the county said in a statement Wednesday, it has improved processes, communication and staffing.

“The trauma endured by this family is heartbreaking,” the statement said. “The abuse these children suffered in both their biological and adoptive homes was tragic and unacceptable. No one wants this to happen again.”

Among the changes:

• Decision-making was expanded so that complex cases are a shared responsibility, not “someone else’s job.”

• Child welfare and law enforcement work better together so that “high-risk situations are handled quickly, clearly and consistently.”

• Departments share information and coordinate services so that families aren’t forced to navigate the maze of programs and resources alone.

• The county increased foster care options.

• The county increased the amount it pays caseworkers and the size of the staff to reduce caseloads. In June 2022, the Children’s Services Division had 573 caseworkers; now it has 740.

• Staff are trained to conduct interviews with children in locations where no one else can hear them or record the conversations.

“The changes the county is making are significant,” attorney Roger Booth of Booth Law said Wednesday.

ChildNet, in a statement sent to the Southern California News Group, said of the Turpins: “What they endured early in their lives is heartbreaking.”

But ChildNet accepted no responsibility for their abuse, which continued after the Olguins adopted five of the six Turpins, thus ending their status as foster children.

“During the time the children were in ChildNet’s foster care program, there were no complaints or allegations of abuse or neglect regarding their foster placement,” the statement sent by spokesman Eric Rose said in part. “The children received extensive services, participated in regular multidisciplinary treatment team meetings, and made meaningful progress, academically, emotionally, and socially.

“The allegations raised in this matter came after the children were no longer in ChildNet’s care and after the foster care case had been closed,” the statement continued. “ChildNet had no oversight authority following the adoption and has no knowledge of what occurred thereafter. It is essential to be clear: there were no substantiated concerns during the period when ChildNet was responsible for the children’s care.”

Booth pushed back against those assertions, describing his reaction — and that of the Turpins — as “shocked and horrified.”

“They’re trying to make a cute distinction between what happened between the time they were in the foster system and when they were adopted by the Olguins,” Booth said, asserting concerns about the Turpins’ safety were voiced to Child Protective Services. Booth also said ChildNet employees themselves raised issues to their superiors, only to be ignored.

“They can’t wash their hands of the Olguins,” Booth said.

Caseworker interviews with the Turpins, Booth said, were part of the problem. With the Olguins listening to the children’s answers, they were afraid to tell the truth, Booth said.

“I don’t understand why a worker thinks you’re going to feel safe to answer questions when you are literally being watched,” Jolinda Turpin told Sawyer. “There was a Ring camera right there and the Olguins would listen and watch us say everything we said to those workers.”

The six Turpins were removed to caring foster homes, and now only one is a minor. All the others have graduated from high school, and some are in college. Jennifer has married.

James Turpin, who said Marcelino Olguin urged him to kill himself, now says: “I have a dream now.”

Said Jolinda: “Something good needs to come from this. It has to, and I can’t accept it not.”