BY KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - A homeless man accused of trying to lure children into a building at an apartment complex with the promise of gifts remained in jail Thursday. Bail had not been set.

Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies charged Martin Jay Lieberman, 56, with seven counts of kidnapping a child under 13, six counts of luring or enticing a child and one count of lewd or lascivious molestation. Lieberman, according to his family, has been homeless.

Deputies said that around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Wexford apartment complex, just north of Hillsborough Avenue and east of Orient Road, a man approached seven children playing within the complex.

Deputies say the man tried to lure the children to accompany him to a building there with the promise of gifts. At one point, the man attempted to grab some of the children by their arms and pull them along, deputies said.

The children struggled and managed to free themselves and ran off, deputies said. All were between 10 and 13, deputies said.

Hillsborough County court records show that Lieberman, a former car salesman in Clearwater who currently is unemployed, was arrested in January at Tampa International Airport and charged with possession of cocaine and marijuana. He has entered an innocent plea to those charges. The case is pending.

He is not on the state’s registered sex offender list.

Stay tuned to tbo.com for more details

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