‘Cheer’ star Harris accused of exploiting 10 children, including 2 boys in Fort Worth
Jeremiah Harris, one of the well-known stars from Netflix’s “Cheer,” is accused of “exploiting and violating” at least 10 underage boys, including two in Fort Worth, in court documents filed Tuesday.
Last month, Harris was charged with one count of producing child pornography. The 21-year-old repeatedly asked a teenage boy to take sexually explicit videos and photographs of himself and send them to him, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Harris was arrested on Sept. 17 and is currently in a Chicago jail.
According to court documents filed Tuesday, Harris sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy at a cheer event in 2019. Harris admitted to authorities that he raped the boy inside a public, unlocked bathroom, according to the court documents.
Harris also solicited nude photos from boys as young as 13, sometimes offering to pay them in exchange for photos or videos, authorities alleged in the complaint. He is also accused of trying to sexually assault a teenage boy at a cheer competition in Fort Worth.
Harris previously denied sexual misconduct allegations to the media. His attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Harris used his fame and money to target minors by offering them money — sometimes more than $1,000 — to perform sexual acts over FaceTime or Snapchat, according to the court documents.
“Harris exhibits all the signs of a serial child predator and unless and until he receives significant mental health sex offender treatment, he will remain a danger to any child he encounters, either online or in person,” prosecutors wrote in a motion for pretrial detention for Harris.
In a Tarrant County lawsuit, Harris was accused of asking two 13-year-old boys to send sexually explicit pictures of themselves and asking one of them for oral sex while at the Fort Worth Convention Center in February 2019.
The lawsuit says the cheer companies sponsoring the event, Varsity Spirit LLC and United States All Star Federation, were negligent in supervising the boys and knew that Harris had a “disposition” to engage in sexual misconduct with minors, but still allowed him to be a coach and mentor to underage children. The suit asks for a trial by jury and $1 million in damages.
In September, a spokesman representing Harris told ABC News and Variety in a statement, “We categorically dispute the claims made against Jerry Harris, which are alleged to have occurred when he was a teenager. We are confident that when the investigation is completed the true facts will be revealed.”
Harris was one of a group of cheerleaders featured in the Netflix docuseries “Cheer,” which chronicled the cheerleading team at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 10:08 AM.
