Foster family pleads guilty to abusing children who had been tortured by parents

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Three members of a foster family have pleaded guilty to abusing children, including several who previously were tortured by their parents in a Southern California home.

The Press-Enterprise reports that Marcelino Olguin pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple counts of lewd acts on a child in addition to false imprisonment and injuring a child. His attorney, Paul Grech, said he entered the pleas in Superior Court in Riverside to bring closure to his family.

Olguin’s wife Rosa and daughter Lennys pleaded guilty to child cruelty, false imprisonment and other charges.

They are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 18

Authorities said the Olguins forced children in their care to eat their own vomit and sit alone for hours.

Among the children they cared for were six members of the Turpin family, who were placed with the Olguins after being rescued from horribly abusive conditions in their parents’ home.

The parents, David and Louise Turpin, pleaded guilty in 2019 to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children and starving them. The couple was arrested after their 17-year-old daughter escaped and called 911 in the city of Perris, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.