A breakout star of the Netflix docuseries Cheer pleaded guilty Thursday in a child pornography case brought against him by federal authorities in Chicago. Jerry Harris, 22, was charged with producing child pornography for allegedly soliciting sexual photos from teenage boys, some as young as 13 at the time. Under FBI investigation since 2019, he was arrested in Sept. 2020. Harris expressed remorse but also blamed the cheer community in a statement from his lawyer: “Jerry Harris has entered a plea of guilty today because he wishes to take responsibility for his actions and publicly convey his remorse for the harm he has caused the victims in this case… The criminal conduct in this case also took place in the context of a competitive Cheer Community where inappropriately sexualizing and sexually abusing children was far too common and too often overlooked. Jerry was himself exploited, manipulated, and sexually abused as a child within the Cheer Community.”
