Mom upset sex offender allowed near kids in pee wee football league

SHEPHERD, TX (KTRK) -- A San Jacinto County mother says she couldn't believe it when she saw a man she considered an assistant coach on her five-year-old son's pee-wee football team listed online as a sex offender.

"I was shocked. I was very upset, very angry. There's really not a word for it," she says. "My son's five years old, this man's out here on the field with my son, and for no one to notify me of it before I sign my son up or before they sign the coach up, somebody should have let the parents know."

The offense happened when the victim and suspect were both teenagers. But the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office confirms the offender is not on probation or parole and has no legal restrictions. And because he didn't break any laws by assisting the team, Eyewitness News is choosing not to identify him.

"On our coach's application we ask if they have any felonies," explains coach and board member Erik Burton. "And then they either tell us yes or no and then by that we have to further go and do an investigation on that."

Burton says, however the offender wasn't a coach. After telling us Monday morning he was an assistant, the board now says upon further review of its records that he was a parent volunteer and never applied to be a coach.

"This league here it's our first year," adds Burton. "We're not wanting this type thing to be going on. We're doing the best we can."

But the mom, who says she's pulled her son from the league, says she hopes other youth leagues learn from the mistakes made here for everyone's sake.

"If my child wants to play baseball, are they going to do a background check on the baseball coaches?" she asks. "This is something that needs to be taken care of in any town, any state, anywhere."