Former Netflix Cheer docu-series star Jerry Harris has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and eight years of supervised release after prison. Cheer first aired on Netflix back in 2020, focusing on the Navarro College Bulldogs Cheer Team from Corsicana, Texas, who were one of the best ranked cheerleading teams in the world due to their coach, Monica Aldama. The series was very intense and took you on the journey of watching these young adults dedicate their bodies to cheerleading.
Many, myself included, got sucked into the story and were compelled by it—even though there had been some messy racial issues from the start. Of the many personalities that shone through, Jerry Harris became one of the most popular with his positivity and his great “mat-talk” (encouraging other players). That was shattered in early 2020 when a Texas mother came forward and alleged that her two twin sons, now 16, were abused by Harris.
The twins were featured in the second season of Cheer, which was forced to address the issue. Not only was it devastating for the victims, but also for the teammates who were friends of Harris, some of whom were survivors of childhood sexual assault themselves. Harris pleaded guilty, in February 2022, “to charges of child pornography and traveling across state lines with the purpose of having sex with a child.”
Harris attorney’s attempted to get his client a six-year prison term and brought up Harris’s own sexual assault at the age of 13, explaining that it gave him a “warped view of relationships.” Newsweek reports that “over 80 character references were submitted, including from his Cheer castmates and coach, Monica Aldama.”
Yesterday, Harris was sentenced to 12 years in prison and eight years of supervised release after prison. U.S. District Judge Manish Shah wrote, “Harris used his celebrity and wealth to continue his exploitation of children, expanding the tools available to him to manipulate them into gratifying his seemingly insatiable sexual desires.”
The Judge called 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.”
Through his lawyer, Harris said, “I regret my decisions and I am deeply sorry. 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.”
(via Newsweek, featured image: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
