Prosecutors seek 15 years for former ‘Cheer’ star Harris

CHICAGO » A prosecutor has asked a federal judge to sentence Jerry Harris, a former star of the Netflix documentary series “Cheer,” to 15 years in prison for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions.

Attorneys for Harris are seeking a sentence of six years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Guzman wrote in a sentencing memo late Wednesday that Harris used “his status as a competitive cheerleader, his social media persona, and eventually his celebrity and money, to persuade and entice his young victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him or with him.”

Guzman also requested the sentence include 10 years of supervised release after the prison term.

Harris, 22, of suburban Naperville, lll., pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count each of receiving child pornography and traveling with the intention to engage in illegal sexual conduct. He is due to be sentenced July 6 by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah.

Defense attorneys, in asking that a six-year sentence be followed by eight years of supervised release, described Harris as “both victimizer and victim,” saying he was sexually assaulted himself when he was a child.

“The trauma he experienced as a child normalized his skewed version of what he understood to be appropriate relationships,” defense attorneys wrote. “No one was there to stand up for him when he was sexually assaulted as a minor. He is grateful that is not the case for his victims in this case, to whom he is profoundly remorseful.”