'Cheer's Jerry Harris Is Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison For Sex Crimes
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Jerry Harris, 22, was a breakout star in the first season of Netflix's hit docuseries Cheer.
In 2020, Harris was arrested on federal child pornography charges, to the shock of his teammates and coaches.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to two of his child pornography and sex abuse charges in February.
On Wednesday, July 6, a judge sentenced Jerry Harris to 12 years in prison and eight years of supervised release for two of his child pornography and sex abuse charges.
In February, The Associated Press reported that Harris pled guilty to persuading a 17-year-old to send him sexually explicit photos in exchange for money and "engaging in illicit sexual conduct" with a 15-year-old while on a trip to Florida.
Harris originally faced seven sex crime charges. However, Harris and his team reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that after sentencing on the two counts, prosecutors would ask for the remaining five charges to be dropped, a judge said at the hearing, according to The New York Times. He previously pled not guilty to all seven charges back in December of 2020.
In a statement from his lawyers, they noted that Harris' decision to plead guilty stemmed from wanting to hold himself accountable for his actions and "publicly convey his remorse for the harm he has caused the victims in this case." As a form of responsibility, Harris has been voluntarily participating in mental health counseling.
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Here’s everything to know:
What was Jerry Harris charged with?
Jerry Harris was originally arrested in Sept. 2020 on one charge of production of child pornography, NBC News reported. And later that month, two underage twin brothers sued Harris for supposedly demanding they send him nude photographs and sexually abusing them, per People.
Then, in Dec. 2020, federal agents brought up additional charges against him. Among those charges were using the internet to "persuade, induce, and entice" a minor, receiving and attempting to receive child pornography, and traveling from Texas to Florida “for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct,” the indictment read.
After he was arrested, Harris agreed to be interviewed by law enforcement officials. He admitted that he had solicited sexually explicit photos on Snapchat from up to 15 people who he knew were minors. He also admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old at a cheer competition back in 2019, according to the indictment—but the documents don't mention how old Harris was at the time.
What else happened during his sentencing hearing?
The hearing, which lasted almost seven hours, resulted in U.S. District Judge Manish Shah sentencing Harris to an additional eight years of supervised release after his term in prison is completed. Shah told Harris that his sentence was an "expression of the seriousness of your crimes, tempered with some hope that all is not lost for you or for your victims, and that in the future some healing can occur," per The Washington Post.
Harris' sentence was leaned more in favor of the prosecution, who requested he be sentenced to 15 years in prison after Harris' team asked for a six-year term. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Guzman noted that while she acknowledges that Harris has trauma from being abused at age 13, it does not provide him with " a blank check to commit sex offenses against minors," per USA Today.
"I regret my decisions, and I am deeply sorry," Harris said on Wednesday, according to his statement that was shared by his attorney, Todd Pugh. "All I can do going forward is to try to do better and be a better person. I do not deserve forgiveness, but I do pray that one day you might find it in your hearts," per USA Today.
Did Harris go to jail?
Yes. Jerry has been held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago since his arrest in September 2020.
How did Cheer tackle his case?
Season 2 dedicates its fifth episode to explaining Harris' case. In the episode titled "Jerry," Harris' former teammates share how shocked they were by the news of his arrest.
"Immediately my heart completely sank. I honestly thought I was living in a bad dream. I could not wrap my head around any of that. I felt like someone had just died," said Gabi Butler.
Another teammate, James Thomas, said "I kinda just sunk into a hole and cried. And cried and cried and cried. And then I called my mom . . . asking her 'How?' . . . Like, I don't understand. He never said anything about this stuff to me. And like I could have helped stop or guide him somewhere else."
Monica Aldama, the team's coach, also shared her perspective. “I was on the stage at Dancing with the Stars in dress rehearsal for our very first live show, the executive producer came up to me and showed me her phone and asked me if I had seen the headline in the news that day,” she said.
“It was like an out-of-body experience at the time. I felt like I couldn’t breathe . . . I did the show. And then I went back to my trailer. I didn’t even want to look at my phone because I was scared."
“I couldn’t do anything about it. And I just didn’t want to read it,” she continued. Aldama then says that night's team meeting felt like a "funeral."
The twin brothers who originally filed a lawsuit against Harris, Sam and Charlie, and their mother are also interviewed in the episode. The boys recall the interactions they had with Harris and share that they were afraid to come forward at first because they thought they'd become outcasts in the cheerleading community.
“[Harris] was doing good things for All Star cheerleading because he was bringing all this very positive attention to this sport that they really cared about,” their mother, Kristin, shared. “They didn’t want him affected adversely for the sake of their sport, and they didn’t want to be the ones that tattled on Jerry Harris because they knew that it would be devastating for them socially.”
Producers also interviewed Sarah Klein, an attorney who has previously worked as an advocate for victims of sexual abuse. “Jerry has become sort of the poster child for this within cheer because he was very high profile,” she explained.
“Some people are going to say it’s great that he was exposed for who he is and what he was doing, and some people are going to say, ‘Not our Jerry. We love him.’ It’s very easy when we fall in love with people we feel connected to in some way to have them on a pedestal and to believe they can do no wrong.”
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