Former Cheer star Jerry Harris will go to jail for 12 years for coercing adolescent boys to ship him sexually express photographs and soliciting intercourse from minors. The choose handed down the sentence in a Chicago federal courtroom on Wednesday after a prolonged listening to. Prosecutors sought 15 years whereas Harris’s attorneys requested for a sentence of six years. The 22-year-old actuality star confronted as much as 50 years in jail.
Harris, the breakout star of Netflix’s first season of Cheer, struck a cope with prosecutors earlier this yr after denying wrongdoing. Though he was charged with seven federal crimes, he in the end pleaded responsible to 2: receipt of kid sexual abuse materials and one depend of touring with the intent to have interaction in illicit sexual conduct. Harris paid a 17-year-old to ship him sexually express photographs and likewise traveled to Florida “for the aim of participating in illicit sexual conduct” with a 15-year-old boy.
Of their sentencing memo, prosecutors mentioned Harris used “his standing as a aggressive cheerleader, his social media persona, and ultimately his celeb and cash, to influence and entice his younger victims to have interaction in sexually express conduct for him or with him.” They requested the sentence embody 10 years of supervised launch after the jail time period.
The protection crew referred to as Harris “each victimizer and sufferer,” telling the choose he was sexually assaulted when he was a toddler.
“The trauma he skilled as a toddler normalized his skewed model of what he understood to be acceptable relationships. Nobody was there to face up for him when he was sexually assaulted as a minor. He’s grateful that isn’t the case for his victims on this case, to whom he’s profoundly remorseful,” Harris’s legal professionals wrote of their letter.
Harris was beloved by viewers — and celebrities — when Cheer debuted in Jan. 2020. He hosted the Oscars pink carpet as a correspondent for The Ellen DeGeneres Present. Seven months later, USA Immediately revealed Harris was underneath investigation by the FBI for intercourse crimes involving minors. The scandal was addressed on Season 2 of Cheer. Harris has been behind bars since his arrest in Sept. 2020.
