The 22-year-old former “Cheer” star, Jerry Harris, has been handed a 12-year prison sentence in his child pornography case.
Harris, a resident of suburban Naperville, had previously pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography and traveling with the intention to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
In September 2020, he was arrested on a charge of production of child pornography. Prosecutors alleged that he had solicited videos and images from two 14-year-old brothers.
According to a complaint, federal prosecutors stated that Harris acknowledged repeatedly requesting pornographic videos and images from a minor teen between December 2018 and March 2020.
He admitted to FBI agents that he had asked a teenage boy to send him lewd photographs and had requested child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 others whom he knew were minors, as per the indictment.
The former cheerleader has been given a 12-year imprisonment for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves, as well as for soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah also mandated that the sentence be followed by eight years of court-supervised release.
Shah advised Harris to view the sentence as “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.”
A federal prosecutor sought a 15-year sentence followed by 10 years of supervised release, while Harris’s attorneys aimed for a six-year sentence with eight years of supervised release.
Prior to receiving his sentence, Harris apologized to his victims, expressing:
“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. I’m still learning who I am and what my purpose is.”