Hockey moms and dads whose children play in an East Bay program affiliated with the San Jose Sharks thought no one who ever committed a sex crime and applied to coach would get near their kids because they’d be screened by a criminal background check.

But the California Amateur Hockey Association and Sharks Ice, which runs the Oakland Ice Center rink, let a man coach 9-, 10- and 11-year-old kids even after a background check showed he had been convicted of a sex crime against an underage girl when he was a young man.

It turns out that applicants who have been convicted of sex crimes and are red-flagged can appeal to the hockey association for permission to coach anyway, as the incident at the Oakland Ice Center this past summer illustrated. The Sharks asked Charlie Jones, 29, not to return as coach, but only after a suspicious parent dug further into his background and presented the association’s appeal committee with more information.

Both the Sharks and the hockey association say they have since toughened their policies.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for any type of misconduct that places the safety of children at risk,” said Jon Gustafson, vice president of Sharks Ice, insisting his organization will never again allow someone convicted of a sex crime to coach even if the association clears it on appeal.

“Don’t think for a minute we haven’t learned from this,” added Lance Burrow, a San Jose lawyer who serves in a volunteer capacity as the hockey association’s general counsel and its “SafeSport” director.

But parents say the incident highlights a troubling gap in laws and procedures meant to ensure their kids’ safety, and wonder how many coaches with checkered pasts might be working with kids in other sports programs.

The East Bay incident began in the summer of 2012 when Jones, one of the best hockey players in the men’s league, was named head coach of the Squirts. The team plays at the Oakland Ice Center, operated by Sharks Ice managers who name the coaches.

Jones was convicted in 2003 of felony attempted criminal sexual conduct in Michigan. According to a police report, he confessed to picking up two 15-year-old girls, supplying them with alcohol and raping one of them while she was unconscious. After pleading to a lesser “attempted” charge in a plea deal that spared the victim from testifying, Jones was sentenced to probation and ordered to register in Michigan as a sex offender for 25 years.

Burrow said the hockey association was told a “sanitized” version of the story, and admitted the group granted Jones’ appeal without doing its own investigation. Meanwhile, most of the Squirts’ parents had no idea Jones had even been red-flagged.

One of the team’s assistant coaches, parent Jason Dewitt, was initially told by the Sharks Ice hockey director — who was dating Jones — that Jones had been convicted only of a minor “misdemeanor” when he was 18, for having consensual sex with a girlfriend who was just a year or two younger. Dewitt said he had no reason to doubt the story at the time.

But this past summer, a rink employee told him Jones had actually been convicted of a more serious offense. Alarmed, Dewitt, who makes his living as a private investigator, called the detective who handled the case in Brownstone, Mich., spoke to the victim’s father and obtained copies of the police report and the entire court record.

About seven days after Dewitt informed the Sharks, they asked Jones not to return and fired the hockey director who was romantically involved with him about a month later. Jones and his lawyer declined to comment.

Alameda County prosecutors last summer charged Jones with four felony counts of failing to properly keep up with California sex-registry requirements. But prosecutors dropped those charges after Jones’ attorney successfully argued he does not have to register here because California doesn’t require registration for the crime he was convicted of in Michigan. His name also no longer appears on the Michigan registry because he moved out of that state. Under Michigan law, sex offenders who move must register in their new state — unless they benefit from a loophole, like Jones.

Some of the hockey parents accused the hockey association and Sharks of initially dismissing their concerns and even retaliating against Dewitt and another former volunteer coach before asking Jones not to return and toughening their policies.

The Sharks deny the accusations and say they have learned their lesson from the Jones incident.

Despite the evidence Dewitt produced, the hockey association initially refused to ban Jones from coaching in California after the Sharks dropped him. Dewitt had to appeal to USA Hockey, which oversees the state association, to get Jones banned.

Still, a spokesman for USA Hockey rejected the Sharks’ new zero-tolerance approach, saying the appeals process is necessary, for instance, in cases where the applicant has a common name and the criminal background check produces someone else’s record.

Burrow also said applicants deserve “due process,” though the association now realizes it “may” have to do its own investigation next time someone appeals.

“Are we going to do business the same way as before this came along? No,” he said. “It’s going to change the way we do things going forward.”

But other association leaders say they will push for a ban on anyone with a record, except in cases where there’s a mix-up and the applicant is not the actual offender.

“If the background check flags something sexual or abuse of children,” said Tom Hancock, a board member from northern California, “then as far as I’m concerned, it’s, ‘Sorry, you’re not going to coach for us.'”

Contact Tracey Kaplan at 408-278-3482. Follow her at Twitter.com/tkaplanreport.