Jerry Harris, one of the stars of the 2020 Netflix series Cheer and a former Joe Biden campaign surrogate, pleaded guilty to only two federal charges relating to child sex abuse last week, according to reports.
The 22-year-old former cheerleader pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago to one count each of receiving child sexual abuse images and soliciting sex from minors, according to the Guardian.
The actor pleaded guilty to two of seven felony counts against him. The guilty pleas came for one count of convincing a child under 17 of sending explicit images via cell phone and a second count for the trip Harris took to Florida to meet the child for the purpose of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct.” Prosecutors dropped the remaining counts after Harris agreed to a plea deal.
Greta Gerwig, right, talks to Jerry Harris on the red carpet at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Harris could be sentenced to 20 years for the child 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 arrested in Sept. of 2020 after the parents of one of the children the actor targeted had discovered the disturbing photos and videos that the actor had sent the boy on his cell phone.
“Law enforcement was recently contacted by the parent (Individual A) of two 14 year old male children (Minors 1 and 2) regarding allegations that an individual named Jerry Harris had contacted Minor 1 and Minor 2 online and repeatedly solicited child pornography images and videos from Minors 1 and 2,” the federal complaint read.
“Minor 1 stated that between December 2018 when Harris first contacted him online, and March 2020 when Minor 1 stopped speaking to Harris, at Harris’ request, Minor 1 had sent Harris over a dozen photographs and videos of Minor 1 depicting Minor 1’s penis and anus,” the affidavit continued. “Minor 1 stated that Harris sent Minor 1 photographs of HARRIS’ penis, as well as videos of HARRIS masturbating. Minor 1 informed Harris that he was 13 years old in their initial online encounter.”
The child also alleged that he had a one-on-one encounter with Harris where the actor reportedly solicited a sex act from him.
Only a month before his arrest, Harris was hailed as an advocate for Joe Biden during the 2020 election cycle. In August of 2020, for instance, TIME magazine highlighted how Harris and other celebrities had been recruited to stump for Biden’s campaign.
As TIME reported:
Biden’s digital team knows the former VP’s online following doesn’t begin to compete with Trump’s. So, its strategy has revolved partly around leveraging the popularity of others. Biden’s team has organized Instagram Live sessions with influencers including TV personality Keke Palmer and Jerry Harris from the Netflix series Cheer. (The idea of working with Harris earned the support of Biden’s college-age granddaughter Finnegan, who has the candidate’s ear on digital matters.)
Only weeks later, the FBI raided Harris’ Naperville, Illinois, residence in connection with the sexual abuse allegations.
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