Netflix star Jerry Harris has been charged with production of child pornography after a raid was conducted on his home in Naperville.
Harris is known for appearing in popular Netflix series Cheer, a docu series which looks at the culture of cheer teams in the US.
He was arrested on Thursday, September 17, with a charge in Chicago federal court. The charge is soliciting pornographic videos and images of minors, as well as soliciting sex from a victim aged 13 at cheerleading competitions.
If convicted, the charge carries a minimum count of 15 years in prison, and he was set to appear in front of a magistrate judge on Thursday afternoon at the US Courthouse in Dirksen.
To explore the charges in more depth, it has been reported that Harris made contact with a male on Snapchat back in 2018 and persuaded him to send explicit photographs and videos to him.
The charge states that the victim had told Harris during their online interaction that he was 13 years of age. Some of the photos were found by the parent of the victim on his phone.
Furthermore, the victim said when approached by his parent over the issue that Harris had obtained oral sex from him in a bathroom during a cheerleading event.
When Harris had his home raided by the FBI earlier this week, he admitted during interview that he had obtained multiple images and sex a number of times.
According to the report, Harris has also been involved in soliciting and receiving child pornography on Snapchat from 10 to 15 other minors.
The docuseries Harris rose to fame on followed the story of the competitive cheerleading squad based at Navarro College in Texas, and he was taken note of for being the one to motivate his fellow cheerleaders with particular gusto.
He has gone on to enjoy fame in various respects, such as being an Oscars red carpet correspondent for the Ellen DeGeneres show, appearing on stage with Oprah Winfrey and being part of a sketch on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
