No decision yet on bond for 'Cheer' star Jerry Harris in child porn case, as mother of victims describes 'worst nightmare'
CHICAGO — The mother of two alleged victims of “Cheer” star Jerry Harris told a federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday the past two years have been “a parent’s worst nightmare” and that Harris should remain behind bars pending trial on child pornography charges.
Harris, 21, of suburban Naperville, has been in federal custody since his arrest last month on child pornography charges alleging he repeatedly coerced minor victims to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and solicited sex from boys as young as 13 at cheerleading competitions. In a detention hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Heather McShain said she would make a decision on bond at a later date, perhaps as soon as this week.
During the hearing, the mother of the victims — whose complaint to authorities sparked the criminal investigation — said to release Harris now would be a slap in the face of the bravery her sons have shown.
“Mr. Harris should not be residing in a home, sleeping in a comfortable bed, and being taken care of by a group of cheer moms while my children are paying a very high price for telling the truth,” the mother said, participating in the hearing via telephone.
She told McShain after her boys came forward, they were ridiculed by Harris’ fans, called liars, and threatened; they couldn’t eat or sleep or go to school. She also said it “broke her heart” to learn from the criminal charges that her family “isn’t the only one living this nightmare.”
Prosecutors alleged the breakout Netflix star is a compulsive sexual predator who used his fame to continue to victimize young boys even after learning he was under investigation.
Harris’ lawyers, meanwhile, have asked McShain to release Harris on home detention under the supervision of the group of “cheer moms” who would act as third-party custodians. Under the defense proposal, Harris would also be forbidden from accessing the internet or having a cell phone.
In a motion arguing for release, Harris’ attorneys said the competitive cheerleading world he grew up in exposes younger children to the sexual experiences of older ones and has its own deep-rooted dangers.
“In the early years of Mr. Harris’s life, he was fully immersed into the ‘cheer’ world where sexual predators were largely unchecked with children of all ages,” Harris’ lead attorney, Todd Pugh, wrote in a filing Wednesday.
At the time of Harris’ alleged wrongdoing, Pugh said, the star “was in most respects a child himself interacting with other children.”
Pugh also described Harris’s “hardscrabble home life” growing up in Bolingbrook, where he was “relentlessly ridiculed, mocked, and bullied” in his first two years of high school, struggled with obesity and sexual identity, and was forced to cope with the loss of his mother after she died of lung cancer.
In court Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Parente said he took “offense” to the argument that Harris wasn’t an adult under the law.
“We are talking about an adult male, 19, 20, 21 years old, asking children ages of 13, 14, or 15 to bend over so he can sit on his phone or computer and masturbate,” Parente said in court.
Harris was charged in a criminal complaint in September with production of child pornography and faces a mandatory minimum 15 years behind bars if convicted, making his release on bond unlikely.
Harris’ attorneys have not yet addressed the charges directly, and he has not entered a plea in the case. He has denied similar allegations made in a civil suit through a spokesperson.
The “Cheer” docuseries follows the competitive cheerleading squad at Navarro College in Texas. Harris graduated in 2017 from Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, where he was a standout student.
Prosecutors alleged in a court filing this week that as Harris’ fame grew, he “added to his predatory arsenal by using money to exploit his minor victims.” Harris offered his most recent victims “substantial sums of money, sometime over $1,000,” to perform sexually explicit acts for Harris over Snapchat or FaceTime, Parente said.
After the FBI raided Harris’ Naperville home in September, he admitted to agents during an interview that he had solicited lewd images and sex from boys on numerous occasions, according to the charges.
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