Sex offender teaching gymnastics in GR

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Jennifer Light is a new mother. She doesn't trust just anyone to teach her 18-month-old daughter Katelyn.

So she was horrified when she considered signing Katelyn up for gymnastics lessons at Aerials and Baranis Gymnastics Center in Plainfield Township and found that a coach at the facility, Paul James Hagan, was a convicted sex offender.

"I just don't understand how he can work with children. I mean, there's plenty of other jobs out there. I'm not saying he shouldn't be employed and he should be sent to the side of society, but he should not be teaching children," said Light.

Court files show that in 1994, Hagan was convicted of putting his hands under a 13-year-old gymnast's shirt and touching her breasts.

He spent four months in jail for the crime. His probation required him to sell his gym and not coach for four years.

Hagan is now coaching again. His wife owns Aerials and Baranis.

The Kent County Prosecutor's Office is now investigating what it calls 'customer complaints.'

The Kent County Sheriff's Department arrested Hagan earlier this month for failing to update the Sex Offender Registry. Investigators said that he didn't list the gym as a place where he was "conducting work or volunteer work."

A new state law went into effect in July requiring all sex offenders to disclose where they work.

Officials with the Michigan Sex Offender Registry told Target 8 that Hagan gave them an employment address, but it wasn't the gym's address. He also didn't register a vehicle associated with the gym.

It is legal for Hagan to coach because the gym is not within 1,000 feet of a school. Still, officials at the Sex Offender Registry said they have received several complaints about Hagan and that the law needs to change.

"Somehow, he can teach gymnastics, where you're touching the students helping them do back bends and somersaults and helping them if they fall off the beam. It disgusts me. It flat-out disgusts me," said Light.

She won't let her daughter go to Hagan's gym. She wanted other parents to know why because the gym is a popular place for childrens' birthday parties.

Hagan and his wife insisted to 24 Hour News 8 that gymnasts are safe.

Several parents have also contacted Target 8 and said that their children are coached by Hagan and they trust him.