In lawsuits, Turpin siblings say foster parents beat them, forced them to eat vomit

Six of the Turpin siblings have filed lawsuits against Riverside County and a foster care provider, saying they faced further abuse after being rescued from decades of confinement and malnourishment at the hands of their parents.

The foster parents for the six youngest siblings threatened to put their hands in electric sockets or return them to their biological parents, overfed them to the point of eating disorders, and forced them to eat their own vomit, among other things. The children were also kept from contacting their grown siblings, the suits allege.

The siblings were also physically and sexually abused by the foster parents, "including but not limited to pulling their hair, hitting them with a belt and striking their heads," according to the complaints.

The Desert Sun obtained the two complaints filed Tuesday night, one for the four youngest siblings and another for the next two oldest, seeking damages for the negligence and abuse they say they suffered in foster care.

The complaints say the Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigated and arrested the foster parents in March 2021, showing the county knew about the abuse and neglect for longer than the public has previously known.

ChildNet Youth and Family Services and Foster Family Network are both named defendants in the cases. The county contracted with ChildNet to place the siblings in foster homes, and ultimately placed six of them in the home of a foster family who had previous allegations of abuse and neglect, according to the complaints.

One of the lawsuits alleges the defendants knew about the abuse and neglect but failed to report it to child protective services or police, instead allowing the children to remain in the foster home for three years.

Brett Lewis, director of development and communications for ChildNet, told The Desert Sun late Wednesday that his organization is "not at liberty" yet to discuss the allegations.

"We look forward to providing the facts at the appropriate time in court," Lewis said in an email. "Our agency has been serving California’s most vulnerable, traumatized youth for over 50 years. We have a strong track record of providing excellent care and continue to demonstrate our commitment to these children."

A spoksesperson for the county's Department of Public Social Services issued a statement late Wednesday saying staff there "deeply care about the safety and well-being of every single child under our care" and adding, "our hearts go out to the Turpin siblings."

"Any instance when a child is harmed is heartbreaking," said Gene Kennedy, the spokesperson. "We continue to evaluate our practices with a critical eye and are committed to understanding and addressing the root cause. This includes expanding the availability of quality and safe placements for all children in foster care."

Citing confidentiality laws regarding juvenile cases and county policy on pending legal matters, Kennedy declined to comment on specific allegations in the lawsuits.

Roger Booth and Carly Sanchez, the attorneys representing the four youngest siblings, said ChildNet was one of several agencies the county hired to place dependents in foster homes. The attorneys said they learned that ChildNet administrators knew the foster family the Turpin siblings were placed in had previous allegations of abuse.

"The company had a job to do, to put them in a safe environment, and they failed to do that," Booth said in an interview with The Desert Sun. "They put them with a family they knew had a prior history of neglect. There were concerns raised by their own employees about this foster family. And they did it anyway."

Booth and Sanchez said the fact Riverside County had hired a private company to do placements did not absolve it of responsibility.

"ChildNet is who they chose to outsource childcare to," Booth said. "You can't just outsource this, wash your hands of it and walk away."

Sanchez compared the county's role to one of a parent, given that the siblings were placed in its custody when rescued from their parents.

"It's like giving your kids to a babysitter and not paying attention to what the babysitter is doing," Sanchez said. "That's not good parenting."

Calls for change

Three of the Turpin siblings appeared on an ABC News special in November 2021, where they first made public their claims of abuse in the county's custody. The day the special aired, Riverside County announced it had hired Stephen Larson, a former federal judge, to investigate the allegations and the county's ability to care for dependent adults and children.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin claimed in the special that the county agencies entrusted with the care of the siblings had failed in their duty. The sheriff's department arrest in March 2021, as claimed in the suit, happened some eight months before the county announced it had hired Larson.

It remains unclear which county agency was first alerted that the Turpins could have been further abused, or when that happened, but the suits allege it would have been at least in March 2021.

More: Fleeing 'Hell': Turpin sisters speak for first time on escape from House of Horrors

More: Report: Riverside County care system failed the Turpin siblings 'all too often'

Booth and Sanchez were assigned by the siblings' juvenile dependency lawyers after the siblings were removed from the foster home. Booth has litigated some of the county's most explosive cases of child neglect and abuse, where he said he has seen similar patterns of authorities struggling to manage and act on allegations of abuse before it's too late.

Booth said similar mismanagement happened in the Turpin case despite the international attention it commanded.

"The whole world was watching, and yet Riverside County and ChildNet placed these kids in a home where they were abused," Booth said. "If that's how children with this kind of spotlight are treated, what does that say about those who don't similarly have the public's attention?"

Booth said the publicity around the Turpin case draws attention to foster system in which there is little transparency. He added that ChildNet had a "conflict of interest," being motivated to conceal the abuse because they profited from their continued contract with the county.

Sanchez said the primary goal of the case is justice for the siblings, but added that much more is on the line.

"Riverside County needs to change the way it's operating so that this doesn't happen to other kids," Sanchez said.

Probe found county failed siblings 'all too often'

The lawsuits against the county and foster family agency were filed just a week after county supervisors reviewed a months-long investigation led by former federal judge Stephen Larson, which found the Turpin siblings “often felt frustrated, unheard, and stifled” by Riverside County’s social services system.

While many times the county provided the care the 13 siblings needed in the four years since their parents’ arrest, “all too often the social services system failed them,” according to the 634-page report, which also described many of the county’s social services and programs as “underfunded and stretched far too thin.”

Larson, whose team interviewed more than 100 sources — including two Turpin siblings — and review roughly 30,000 pages of documents, told the board last week that the county provided “an extensive suite” of services and support systems to address the siblings’ situations.

“However, we also found that the Turpin siblings experienced further harm by a system that was meant to protect them,” Larson said.

“Specifically, some of the younger Turpin siblings were placed with caregivers who were later charged with child abuse. Some of the older siblings experienced periods of housing instability and food insecurity as they transitioned to independence," he added.

County supervisors vowed to implement the dozens of recommendations included in Larson’s report, with an ad hoc committee led by supervisors Kevin Jeffries and Karen Spiegel set to oversee how they're carried out.

Turpin parents sent to prison in 2019

The challenges that the Turpin siblings allegedly faced within the county’s social services system came years after one of them, Jordan Turpin, first escaped the Perris home of their parents, David and Louise Turpin, and alerted authorities in January 2018.

The same day as the call from the 17-year-old reporting the abuse, the parents were arrested on suspicion of child abuse and torture, and the 13 siblings were taken to local hospitals for treatment.

Within days of their arrest, the district attorney, Hestrin, said at a press conference that the children were beaten, choked, chained and starved by their parents to the point that their growth was stunted.

In February 2019, the couple pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts, including torture, false imprisonment and child endangerment. They were sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole only after 25 years for crimes involving 12 of their 13 children.

More: David and Louise Turpin case: A timeline of parental torture and abuse

The county’s role in managing the Turpin siblings’ cases then came under scrutiny when ABC ran a special in November 2021 detailing allegations that Riverside County authorities failed to appropriately care for the Turpin siblings since they were removed from the family home.

Shortly after the special aired, Riverside County CEO Jeff Van Wagenen announced the county would hire a former federal judge to investigate the allegations, leading to the report from Larson that was made public — with dozens of pages redacted due to court orders — earlier this month.

Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.

Tom Coulter covers politics and can be reached at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Six Turpin siblings sue Riverside County over abuse in foster care