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Teen accused of molesting 4-year-old

The Progress Village middle schooler will be tried as an adult. The victim is a relative of his former foster mother.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published March 14, 2006

TAMPA - A 15-year-old Progress Village Middle School student was booked into the Orient Road Jail on Wednesday, charged with molesting a 4-year-old relative of his former foster mother.

Garret Workman faced felony charges of sexual battery and lewd or lascivious molestation of a minor.

On Feb. 21, an adult at the Brandon foster home told police that she found the teenager and the 4-year-old partially nude and alone together at 9:30 p.m.

Workman was accused of touching the child inappropriately, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Workman had been in juvenile detention since the night of the incident but was booked into the adult jail at 1 p.m. Monday after prosecutors decided to try him as an adult, Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

The boy had been at the Brandon foster home for two years. The former foster mother described Workman as "real talkative and argumentative," but she never imagined that he was capable of such an act.

"I want him to be punished," said the 51-year-old foster mother, whom the Times is not naming to protect the victim's identity. "I want him to get some help. I want to know what possessed him to do this."

Workman was the eldest of five foster children at the home, all boys.

Today, the family has five foster sons, ages 10 to 13. Five is the most foster children that the family is licensed to take, according to the Department of Children and Families.

A foster care giver for seven years, the 4-year-old's relative said she was so upset by the incident that she initially considered ending her service as a foster parent. But over time, she and her husband decided that they didn't want to punish the other foster children for something they didn't do.

Clay Oberhausen, attorney for Hillsborough Kids Inc., which oversees local foster care, said the agency was investigating the situation. He declined, however, to discuss details, citing state confidentiality laws.

The foster mother said she overheard the 4-year-old talking about the incident. She said she hopes in time the child will forget it happened. If not, the child might get counseling.

She said she tried to ask Workman why he did it. But, she said, the eighth-grader wouldn't look her in the eye.

[Last modified March 14, 2006, 00:54:19]