Joplin day care center owner charged with nine counts of endangering the welfare of a child, one count of failing to report child abuse

The owner of an unlicensed day care center at 1409 W. 9th Street has been charged with nine counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of being a mandated reporter who failed to report child abuse, all misdemeanors, following a Joplin Police Department investigation.

While the probable cause affidavit has not been opened to the public yet, online Jasper County court records indicate the crimes allegedly committed by Betsy Coleman, 43, occurred August 17, 2017, around the same time authorities were investigating Coleman's live-in boyfriend Kent Hagan, who is being held without bond after being indicted by a federal grand jury on child pornography charges.

Federal court documents in Hagan's case indicate Coleman deleted photos from Hagan's phone that depicted child pornography.


Some of her involvement in the case was spelled out in Judge David P. Rush's order denying bond for Hagan.

An informant told the Joplin Police Department Coleman told her she had seen "creepy" photos of two of the children who were under her care on Hagan's phone, as well as numerous child porn images.

Coleman confirmed the informant's story to Detective Dustin Moyer and Sgt. Andrew Blair and said she deleted the photos, which showed the bottoms of the underage children and child porn. She said she kicked Hagan out.


At some point after that, Hagan moved back in, which was when the informant called the police. Coleman told Moyer and Blair she allowed Hagar back in and to be around the children, including her own three children because "she was afraid the perception would ruin her business."

A forensic search of Hagar's Samsung Galaxy phone uncovered 809 child pornography images, 69 anime pornography images with some of the photos featuring children being violated by adults, a female child being violated by a candy cane and a naked child eating corn on the cob, according to the search warrant affidavit.

Other images included children being sexually violated in bondage situations.

At the time that order was filed, prosecutors had indicated they had two more of Hagan's computers which had yet to be searched.