ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / July 29, 2000

EDGARD – St. John the Baptist Parish authorities have arrested a 52-year-old Edgard man and charged him with having sex with two girls, ages 10 and 13.

Deputies were called to a house in Edgard Tuesday, where a woman told police her 10-year-old daughter had been sexually molested.

She discovered the fact after she had taken her daughter to the doctor for a bladder infection. The doctor told the mother that her daughter had beenraped.

After being confronted with the news, the girl admitted that Harold Lumar, 52,100 Second St., Edgard, had been having sexual relations withher since she was 9 years old. Lumar is the boyfriend of the victim’smother.

The mother and daughter were then sent to St. Charles Parish Hospital forfurther tests and counseling. Returning from the hospital, the mothertalked to her 13-year-old daughter, and the girl admitted that she too had been having sex with Lumar.

Based on this testimony, St. John Parish deputies went to Lumar’s houseand arrested him. Lumar confessed to the crimes.Capt. Mike Tregre of the St. John Sheriff’s Office said that while themother was at work, Lumar would babysit the girls. Most of the sexualabuse took place at the mother’s house.

“He would threaten them,” said Tregre, “and then he brainwashed them by telling the girls that their mother had told him to teach them all about life.”Lumar is charged with carnal knowledge of a juvenile and aggravated rape of a victim under 12 years of age. He is also charged as a fugitive fromanother agency for a speeding ticket in St. James Parish.Lumar is in the St. John Parish jail under a $150,000 bond set by DistrictCourt Judge Sterling Snowdy.

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