PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A woman who police said assaulted a sex offender with a baseball bat said," I'd do it again if I had to," reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

After learning that her Puyallup neighbor, 24-year-old William Baldwin, was a convicted level 3 sex offender from a flyer she received from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, Tammy Gibson said, "I lost my mind."

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Kevin McCarty interviewed both Gibson and Baldwin.

"She grabbed a bat, picked it up and started beating the crap out of me. She started beating me the way a man would with a bat", said Baldwin of the incident. "I've never even seen her before and she just comes over and accuses me of molesting her children and attacks me with a bat."

Gibson said she had seen Baldwin around the River Road Trailer Park and adjacent Cottonwood Mobile Home Park several times over the last year.

"I can't believe that he was allowed in our neighborhood", said Gibson.

Gibson said she often saw the 7 feet 3 inches tall Baldwin talking with her 10-year-old daughter.

"Last year, on the Fourth of July, he was talking to my daughter. I got the flyer in the mail and I snapped. I went nuts," Gibson told McCarty.

Gibson said she once told her live-in boyfriend she thought Baldwin was harmless, but said all that changed when she got the flyer that listed Baldwin's conviction on two counts of first-degree child molestation in 1999 as well as other offenses.

The flyer states that Baldwin lured a 5-year-old girl into a doghouse in his backyard and sexually assaulted her. That crime was committed while he was on parole for another sexual assault in which he forced a different 5- year-old girl into a sex act with him.

Gibson, who one neighbor referred to as "angry Tammy," at first told investigators she believed Baldwin had molested her daughter, then later admitted she knew he had not, but was afraid he would re-offend, court documents said.

Baldwin told McCarty he understands why people need to be informed that he is living in their neighborhood and claimed he has been assaulted in the past when people residing near him learned about his criminal past.

Baldwin said he has not re-offended since his release from prison in 2002 and said he has gone through counseling while jailed and now wants to put his past behind him.

"I did wrong to kids and people. I'm not like that anymore," said Baldwin.

Baldwin said that on the day of the assault, he had just completed a job interview and was looking forward to getting to work with a new company.

He also said he approves of the sex offender notification law.

"I think people should be told. If I wasn't a sex offender and I had a sex offender or a rapist living near me, I'd be mad too. I understand why she did what she did, but I didn't touch her kids," Baldwin said of Gibson.

Because he lived in the trailer park near River Road for several months before changing his registered address as required by law, Baldwin could be charged with failing to register as a sex offender.

Baldwin, who is currently in the Pierce County Jail, said he had to be escorted by Pierce County Corrections Officers for protection once the news of his alleged assault and sex offender status was broadcast by KIRO 7.

Gibson was arrested and charged with second-degree assault and felony harassment. She was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

Gibson said her biggest concern now that she is in jail and could go to prison is her daughter.

"I'm in big trouble for this and I'm wondering who is taking care of my daughter right now. I want to be with my kids, but I guess I just sit and wait," Gibson said tearfully.