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RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) – The 13 southern California siblings who were rescued three years ago from horribly abusive conditions, including years of imprisonment in their home, bondage to beds, and starvation from their parents, have failed in various places from a social service system that should help them transition into a new life, according to research by ABC News.
The network reported Friday that Riverside County has hired a private law firm to investigate allegations that seven adult and six minor children of the Turpin family failed to receive basic care after being released from their parents’ prison-like home. There is also a criminal investigation into a foster family suspected of mistreating multiple children, including one of the turpins, ABC reported. A lawyer from this family denied the allegations.
Some of the children said they felt “cheated” by the handling of their cases by local officials, said Melissa Donaldson, director of Riverside County’s Victim Services. Donaldson said there were times when the children didn’t have a safe place to stay or didn’t have enough to eat.
She wept as she described how the children, who had little contact with the outside world while held as prisoners by their parents David and Louise Turpin, were sometimes left alone to deal with a complicated bureaucracy.
“Obviously when the case came out, I got thousands of offers of help … dentists and doctors and people who said, ‘I’m going to serve these children pro bono. Please send them to me, ‘”she said. “I had to pass these referrals on to the child protection workers and the hospital. And none of them were used. “
Donaldson said she spoke up “because we need to fix the system”.
The shocking abuse at the Turpin home went unnoticed in the Perris community, about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, until the then 17-year-old Jordan Turpin escaped and called the police. Jordan and one of her sisters gave their first media interview for a section in the Friday episode of ABC’s “20/20”.
Now 21, Jordan remembered how after escaping the house she could barely press the buttons for the 911 call. She had never spoken to anyone on the phone, she said, and shivered.
When she saw her siblings suffer, she said she felt she had to do something.
“I had to make sure that we wouldn’t return if I left and that we would get the help we needed,” she said in an exciting interview. “Because if we went back, there was no way I would be sitting here.”
When she escaped, Jordan told a sheriff’s assistant that her sisters and brothers, who were between 2 and 29 years old, had been starved, handcuffed, and forced to live in misery. The children slept during the day, were active for a few hours at night, and had a minimal education.
Body-worn camera footage of the deputy who saved the siblings shows him talking to Jordan, who nervously says that she has never spoken to anyone outside the house. When the assistant asked if she was taking any medication, Jordan said she didn’t know what that word meant.
When the 13 siblings were rescued, all but the 2-year-old were severely underweight and had not bathed for months. Investigators concluded that the youngest child was the only one who was not molested by their parents, who have since been sentenced to life imprisonment.
In the days after her release, the adult and minor children were taken to hospitals for treatment. Donations and support came from all over the world.
But since that time, the adult siblings have had difficulty accessing social services and even money donated for their care. The money was placed in a trust fund controlled by a court-appointed public guardian.
Joshua Turpin, 29, told ABC News he couldn’t access funds to meet transportation needs.
“I called the public guardian’s office and they refused to let me ask for a bike,” he said.
In a statement, Riverside County’s executive officer Jeff Van Waganen said his office hired a law firm led by former federal judge Stephen G. Larson to analyze the services provided and the quality of care received. A report should be available by the end of March.
“Riverside County is committed to conducting a thorough and transparent review of services to the Turpin siblings and improving and strengthening childcare and dependent adult systems in the county,” the statement said.
Dr. Matthew Chang, who heads the district’s public guardian office, said he welcomed the investigation into the care of the siblings.
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https://www.kxan.com/news/national-news/abused-turpin-kids-now-betrayed-by-social-services-system/
