Jerry Harris, a star of Netflix's hit docuseries Cheer, was hit with additional child pornography charges and one count of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity in an indictment that was made public Friday.
The grand jury indictment, which was filed in federal court Thursday, references at least five alleged underage victims of the 21-year-old who rose to fame on Cheer, which followed the cheerleading team at Navarro College in Texas.
Harris was arrested in September on suspicion of producing child pornography. His arrest came after a lawsuit was filed against him in Texas accusing him of soliciting sex, sending sexually explicit messages, and asking for nude pictures from two 14-year-old twins who said they had been harassed by Harris at cheer competitions since they were 13.
Authorities at the time said one of the boys had sent Harris more than a dozen explicit images since December 2018, and that Harris had allegedly sent the boy pictures of himself masturbating.
Harris denied the allegations in a statement to ABC News at the time of his arrest, but during an interview with investigators had allegedly admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old during a cheer event in 2019.
After the initial arrest, however, federal prosecutors referred to Harris as a "brazen sexual predator" in urging the court to keep Harris in custody, and alleged in a pretrial detention hearing there could be at least 10 boys who had been victimized by the cheering star.
The pretrial motion included allegations that he had followed a boy into a bathroom and sodomized him.
Prosecutors said Harris used his newfound fame, and money, to target victims, including allegedly offering more than $1,000 for minors to perform sexual acts over FaceTime or Snapchat.
The new indictment filed against Harris this week accuses him of four counts of producing child pornography, one count of receiving child pornography, one count of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity, and one count of traveling with the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor.
According to the indictment, the alleged crimes occurred in Naperville, Illinois; Orlando, Florida; and Corsicana and Dallas in Texas.
Harris has remained behind bars since his arrest after a judge ruled the 21-year-old posed a "significant danger to the community."
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December 12, 2020 at 06:15AM
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Jerry Harris From Netflix's "Cheer" Is Facing New Child Pornography Charges - BuzzFeed News
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