The owners of a local gymnastics business are facing child endangerment charges after a sex offender was found to be at the facility supervising children. According to court records, Jeff Ide and Jeanne Ide, the owners of Ide Gymnastics of rural Fairfield, were arrested April 30th. 

Court records indicate an off-duty officer from the Fairfield Police Department observed a known sex offender at the facility. The offender is 50-year-old Marcus Leon Canull. The officer explained in a statement that he observed Canull at a table serving food or beverages to numerous minor children with a parent nearby, but without the presence of an employee and “it is reasonable to assume that this parent had their own child(ren) under their custody/supervision, but only an employee or volunteer of the facility could have assumed supervision/custody of the other children present” and that it was reasonable for the parent to not know of the person being on the Sex Offender Registry. The officer’s account outlines speaking with Jeff Ide who acknowledged he knew of Canull being required to be on the Sex Offender Registry sometime in January of this year and allowed him to work or volunteer at the facility which primarily is designed for the entertainment or education of minor children. 

Canull has two non-Iowa convictions including aggravated criminal sex abuse with a victim under the age of 13 from 1996 and child pornography in 2000. He resides in Fairfield. He has employment and exclusion restrictions that includes he may not loiter on or be within 300 feet of the premises of any place intended primarily for the use of minors, including but not limited to recreational or sport-related activity areas when in use by a minor.  

The Ides have each been charged with child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor. A pretrial conference has been scheduled for July 1st at the Jefferson County Associate Court in Fairfield. 

Canull was arrested and has been charged with a sex offender area or activity violation – crime against a minor, a class C felony. A jury trial has been scheduled for June 3rd.