Report: County didn't do enough to get donations to Turpin siblings
News of the Turpin children’s plight prompted a deluge of community donations in 2018 after the 13 siblings were found chained, abused and generally shut off from the outside world in their Perris home.
But in a report released Friday, the law firm hired to investigate Riverside County’s care of the Turpins concluded that the Public Guardian’s office — which looked after the adult siblings — didn’t do enough to obtain and distribute “a significant amount” of those donations, which exceed $1.2 million.
“It is not entirely clear why the Office of Public Guardian did not seek to obtain and distribute these funds until recently,” the report from the firm of attorney and former judge Stephen Larson states. “According to an unsealed filing by the Turpins’ courtappointed attorney, the Office of Public Guardian previously claimed that it did not have the duty or ability to marshal these funds.
“Regardless of the reasoning, the Office of Public Guardian’s failure to marshal these funds has resulted in the lack of Court oversight for the … funds, and may have resulted in food and housing insecurity for at least some of the Turpin siblings, in direct contravention of the donors’ wishes.”
Phone and email messages seeking comment were left Friday with the Public Guardian’s office.
Allegations that the county neglected the Turpins and exposed them to more abuse surfaced in an ABC News “20/20” report that aired in November.
In interviews for the program, two of the adult children said they lived in bad neighborhoods and had trouble getting money for food or help with basic life skills they didn’t learn in captivity. Some of the children appeared to have been placed with foster parents who have been accused of abuse.
About $30,000 per sibling was distributed to the “special needs trusts” for each of the Turpins, the report read.
“Although we have not found that any of these funds were improperly spent, we are concerned that County Counsel filed every required accounting for both the conservatorship estates and the Special Needs Trusts late — often years past the due date,” the report states.
“Timely filing of accountings is a key component of the Office of Public Guardian’s fiduciary duty as conservator and trustee. If the filings are late, transparency and accountability to the Court are impaired.”
According to the report, the Corona Chamber of Commerce, which raised money for the Turpins, donated about $209,000 that’s controlled by SAFE Family Justice Centers, a nonprofit group that deals with victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and child/elder abuse.
The Jayc Foundation — created by Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped when she was 11 and was freed after 18 years — controls another $1 million in donations, according to the report.
The report criticized “a marked lack of communication and coordination among those responsible for different pots of money that affect the Turpin siblings — (the public guardian), the SAFE Family Justice Center(s), and the (Jayc) Foundation. The County should bring these stakeholders together to facilitate planning for the Turpins’ access to and use of the funds.”
Jayc Foundation spokesperson Nancy Seltzer said Friday that the foundation had distributed money to the Turpins but declined to say how much.
Katie Gilbertson, executive director of SAFE Family Justice Centers, said in March via a text message that her group’s money is reaching the Turpins.
“We continue to expend these funds according to our donor guidelines and requests from the siblings (which we receive daily),” she said at the time.
Only two of the seven adults remain under conservatorship. For four of the other five conservatees, the Public Guardian filed a first accounting of their money with the court 21 months late and the final accounting 10 months late.
For the remaining conservatees, the Public Guardian filed a first accounting more than two years late and a final accounting more than 21 months late. The deputy public guardian interviewed by Larson’s firm said she sent several accountings to County Counsel for approval and transmission to the court on time, but that County Counsel repeatedly lost them, contributing to an improper delay.