Jerry Harris, one of the stars of the 2020 Netflix series Cheer and a former Joe Biden campaign surrogate, pleaded guilty to just two federal charges associating with child sex abuse last week, according to reports.
The 22-year-old previous cheerleader pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago to one count each of receiving kid sexual abuse images and obtaining sex from minors, according to the Guardian.
The actor pleaded guilty to two of seven felony counts versus him. The guilty pleas came for one count of encouraging a child under 17 of sending explicit images by means of cell phone and a second count for the trip Harris required to Florida to fulfill the child for the purpose of “engaging in illegal sexual conduct.” Prosecutors dropped the staying counts after Harris consented to a plea offer.
Greta Gerwig, right, speak to Jerry Harris on the red carpet at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Harris might be sentenced to twenty years for the kid abuse images and 30 years for the act of illicit sexual conduct with a minor under 17 years old. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
Harris was apprehended in Sept. of 2020 after the moms and dads of one of the kids the star targeted had actually discovered the troubling pictures and videos that the star had sent the kid on his mobile phone.
“Police was just recently called by the parent (Individual A) of two 14 years of age male children (Minors 1 and 2) relating to accusations that an individual called Jerry Harris had actually gotten in touch with Minor 1 and Minor 2 online and repeatedly solicited child porn images and videos from Minors 1 and 2,” the federal problem read.
“Minor 1 mentioned that in between December 2018 when Harris initially contacted him online, and March 2020 when Minor 1 stopped speaking with Harris, at Harris’ demand, Minor 1 had sent Harris over a lots pictures and videos of Minor 1 portraying Minor 1’s penis and rectum,” the affidavit continued. “Minor 1 stated that Harris sent Minor 1 pictures of HARRIS’ penis, as well as videos of HARRIS masturbating. Minor 1 informed Harris that he was 13 years of ages in their initial online encounter.”
The child also alleged that he had an individually encounter with Harris where the star apparently got a sex act from him.
Just a month prior to his arrest, Harris was hailed as an advocate for Joe Biden during the 2020 election cycle. In August of 2020, for example, TIME magazine highlighted how Harris and other celebs had actually been hired to stump for Biden’s campaign.
As TIME reported:
Biden’s digital group knows the previous VP’s online following does not begin to compete with Trump’s. So, its strategy has revolved partially around leveraging the appeal of others. Biden’s team has arranged Instagram Live sessions with influencers including television character Keke Palmer and Jerry Harris from the Netflix series Cheer. (The idea of dealing with Harris earned the support of Biden’s college-age granddaughter Finnegan, who has the candidate’s ear on digital matters.)
Only weeks later on, the FBI robbed Harris’ Naperville, Illinois, house in connection with the sexual assault accusations.
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