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Foster Dad Accused Of Sex Act.

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By: Stephen Thompson

Tampa Tribune

Jan. 10--OLDSMAR -- A foster parent is accused of molesting two girls placed in the home he shares with his wife, authorities said. Brian Starmer, 40, of Oldsmar, was arrested Sunday on a warrant charging him with two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child.

The girls were 10 and 7 when the assaults were said to have occurred in 2004 and 2005, Pinellas County sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said.

According to court documents unsealed this week, each girl said Starmer would bring her into a bedroom, have her remove her pants and put her face in a pillow.

Starmer would then rub each girl's back and genitals with lotion, the documents say. For one of the girls, the assaults occurred repeatedly from Jan. 1, 2004, through Dec. 22, 2005, the court documents say.

For the other girl, they occurred from Aug. 1, 2005, through Dec. 22, 2005, the documents say. Starmer was being held Tuesday at the Pinellas County Jail with bail set at $50,000, a jail spokeswoman said.

A man identifying himself as Starmer's nephew declined to comment when reached at the house Tuesday, saying the family was hiring an attorney.

The Sarasota YMCA has a contract with the state to place foster children in Pinellas County, and the agency had placed the two children in the Starmer home, said Lee Johnson, the agency's executive vice president.

The girls have been removed from the Starmers' care, Johnson said. "The kids are safe in preadoptive homes and seem to be doing okay," he said. The Starmers are no longer licensed as foster parents by the Department of Children & Families, he said.

2007 Jan 10