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Jerry Harris from the popular Netflix cheerleading series, “Cheer,” was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Wednesday on multiple charges, including soliciting sex from minors and receiving child pornography.
In addition, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah, ordered that the sentence be followed by eight years of court-supervised release.
“The sentence is 12 years in prison, to be followed by 8 years of court-supervised release,” Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, Assistant U.S. Attorney of Northern District of Illinois, confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Harris was indicted in 2020 on seven counts of receiving and attempting to receive child pornography, and of persuading minors to engage in sexual contact between August 2017 to August 2020.
Shah told Harris to consider the sentence 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.”
Jerry Harris received a 12-year federal prison sentence for soliciting sex from minors. Harris attended the Build Series to discuss “Cheer” in 2020
(Jim Spellman)
Harris, 22, of suburban Naperville, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count each of receiving child pornography and traveling with the intention to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
NETFLIX ‘CHEER’ STAR JERRY HARRIS CHARGED WITH PRODUCTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Prosecutors had asked a federal judge to sentence Harris to 15 years in prison for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions. Harris’ attorneys were seeking a sentence of six years.
Before learning his sentence, Harris apologized to his victims, saying, “I am deeply sorry for all the trauma my abuse has caused you. I pray deep down that your suffering comes to an end.”
“I’m not an evil person,” Harris said. “I’m still learning who I am and what my purpose is.”
Harris has been in custody at a federal detention facility.
Jerry Harris and Monica Aldama join host Zach Stafford at BuzzFeed’s “AM To DM” on January 30, 2020 in New York City.
(Manny Carabel)
‘CHEER’ STAR JERRY HARRIS PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO FELONIES IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE
Sarah Klein, an attorney for two of the victims, issued a statement saying Harris’ guilt was “firmly established.”
“The sentence he received reflects the severity of his crimes and the lifetime of pain his victims will suffer,” Klein said.
Harris was arrested in September 2020 on a charge of production of child pornography. Prosecutors alleged at the time that he solicited videos and images from two 14-year-old brothers.
According to a complaint, federal prosecutors said that Harris admitted to repeatedly asking a minor teen for pornographic videos and images between December 2018 and March 2020.
Harris rose to fame when he was featured on the original Netflix docuseries “Cheer,” which debuted on the streaming platform in 2020
(Netflix)
Then in December of that year, he was indicted on more charges alleging misconduct in Illinois, Florida and Texas. According to the indictment, Harris allegedly solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos of themselves.
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Harris admitted to FBI agents to asking a teenage boy to send him lewd photographs of himself, and to requesting child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors, according to the indictment.
Defense attorneys, in asking that a six-year sentence be followed by eight years of supervised release, described Harris as “both victimizer and victim,” saying he was sexually assaulted himself when he was a child.
“The trauma he experienced as a child normalized his skewed version of what he understood to be appropriate relationships. No one was there to stand up for him when he was sexually assaulted as a minor. He is grateful that is not the case for his victims in this case, to whom he is profoundly remorseful.” defense attorneys wrote.
Federal prosecutors acknowledged the actor’s traumatic childhood was a mitigating factor in his crimes, but said “while Harris’s childhood was very difficult, it was not a blank check to commit sex offenses against minors.”
“Cheer” was a huge success when it was released in January 2020 and Harris became wildly popular for his upbeat attitude and his encouraging “mat talk.” Harris even interviewed celebrities on the red carpet at the Academy Awards for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
The docuseries follows the competitive cheerleading squad from Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.
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Fox News’ Larry Fink and the Associated Press contributed to this report
