Federal prosecutors have filed additional charges against Cheer star Jerry Harris, adding to a previous felony charge of production of child pornography.
In a new seven-count indictment filed on Thursday, Dec. 10, the Netflix docu-series cast member, full name Jeremiah Harris, was charged with sex crimes allegedly involving five minors. He faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison if convicted. Harris, 21, has remained behind bars in Chicago since his arrest in September.
Harris was charged with receiving and attempting to receive child pornography and four counts of using, persuading, inducing, and enticing a minor “to engage in sexually explicit conduct” for the purpose of producing child pornography. The criminal acts allegedly took place between December 2018 and this past August in Harris’ hometown of Naperville, Ill.—a suburb of Chicago, and Corsicana, Texas—home of Navarro College, where Harris was a student and member of the school’s cheerleading team, which was featured in Netflix’s Cheer.
The new indictment also states that when Harris was 19, he allegedly traveled across state lines, from Texas to Florida, in May 2019 “for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct” and “with intent to engage in a sexual act” with a 15-year-old. Harris was also accused of using the internet in Orlando, Fla., to “persuade, induce, and entice” one of the minors to “engage in sexual activity,” the documents state.