Jerry Harris, a former Cheer star, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for intimidating teen boys to send him sexually explicit images and soliciting sex from minor children.
After a lengthy hearing, the judge handed down the sentence in federal court in Chicago on Wednesday.
Prosecutors tried to seek 15 years in prison, while Harris’ attorneys recommended 6 years. The reality star, 22, faced up to 50 years in prison.
He was charged with seven federal crimes, but pleaded guilty to only two: receiving child sexual abuse material and traveling with the expectation to participate in illicit sexual conduct.
The defense team referred to Harris as “both victimizer and victim,” telling the judge that he was sexually abused as a child.
“The trauma he experienced as a child normalized his skewed version of what he understood to be appropriate relationships. 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,” Harris’s lawyers wrote in their letter.
Harris has been imprisoned since his arrest in September 2020.
