Foster Father Accused of Molesting 5 Boys in His Care

A foster father who allegedly molested five boys at a private home for children he once ran in Lake View Terrace was arrested at his Sunland home Friday morning and charged with 26 counts of child sexual abuse, oral copulation and sodomy.

Edward Lamar Burgess, who turned 27 today, was the supervisor at the home for as many as eight children at a time, ranging in age from 10 to 17, said Detective Bill Dworin of the Los Angeles Police Department’s sexually exploited child unit.

Some of the five boys named in the complaint against Burgess are emotionally disturbed, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Loveman, and at least one of them was placed in foster care after he had been sexually abused at home.

Dworin said authorities became aware of the allegations when two boys recently placed in the foster home fled to their own homes in Lancaster and told their mothers that they had been abused. One of the mothers last month reported her son’s complaint to sheriff’s deputies in the Santa Clarita Valley, who turned the case over to Los Angeles police, Dworin said.

“Indications are that the abuse had been going on since January,” he said.

Burgess was fired from his position at the home early last month, “not because of any allegations of abuse, but because of other problems,” Dworin said. “He didn’t relate well with other staff members.”

Although the woman who hired Burgess to run the home also maintains another foster home in the Lake View Terrace area, Dworin said investigators do not believe that Burgess had access to children outside the home he supervised.

Burgess, who is being held at Parker Center Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned in San Fernando Municipal Court on Monday, Loveman said.