Foster parent accused of sexually assaulting three foster children

An Omaha foster parent and retired captain with the Omaha Fire Department is in jail, accused of sexually assaulting three foster children.

Lee Dunbar, Sr., has been in the Douglas County Jail since mid-December. The 66-year-old is behind bars because of the charges leveled against him by foster children.

According to police reports obtained by WOWT 6 News – three girls between the ages of 9-and-11 told investigators at Project Harmony that Dunbar, their foster parent, had sexually assaulted them.

In two of the cases, on different occasions, the girls said they had fallen asleep in his bed and when they woke up he was sexually assaulting them. A 10-year-old told detectives Dunbar encourages children “to watch movies on his bed with him and sleep there” if they get tired.

WOWT 6 News checked Lee Dunbar’s background to see if the state missed something when it decided he should be a foster parent. Before these sexual assault charges, the last time he was arrested was in 2001 in a case of road rage. A woman thought she cut him off and said he pulled up beside her near the Fire Union Hall and smashed her mirror and then struck her with a mini-baseball bat. She needed stitches.

He was convicted of a misdemeanor and put on probation. At the time, in the summer of 2001, he was a captain with the Omaha Fire Department. He retired three months later.

While Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services could not comment on this case, WOWT 6 News was told foster parents must pass background checks and character evaluations every two years.

In addition, case managers visit the home every 30-days and meet with the children separately to see how they're doing.

Dunbar is currently in the Douglas County jail on a $125,000 bond awaiting trial on three counts of first degree sexual assault of a child.