The new season of the Netflix hit docuseries Cheer doesn’t shy away from addressing star Jerry Harris’ arrest on federal child pornography charges last year, with his former teammates and coach breaking down in tears as they discuss the allegations against him.
Jerry, 22, appears in several episodes of the second season, which was filmed at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas from January 2020 through April 2021, with a six-month break due to COVID.
During that time, in September 2020, Jerry was arrested for requesting explicit photos and soliciting sex from minors, and was also accused of similar behavior in a criminal complaint.
While footage of Jerry appears in early episodes of the new season, episode five takes a hard look at the other cast members’ reactions to the arrest, with coach Monica Aldama and friend Gabi Butler both crying during interviews.
The episode also includes interviews with Charlie and Sam, 15-year-old twins who were 13 when they say a 19-year-old Jerry began engaging in sexual communication with them.
Cheer star Jerry Harris , 22, was arrested in September 2020 for allegedly soliciting nude photos of minors
Jerry (pictured right with LaDarius Marshall, Monica Aldama, Gabi Butler) is also accused of having sex with minors
The allegations came partway through filming season two of Cheer, shocking Jerry’s teammates and coach
On September 14, 2020, a lawsuit was filed against Jerry on behalf of the twins, who said that Jerry asked for their phone numbers and social media handles at a 2018 cheerleading competition.
They alleged that he asked for nude photos and, upon seeing then in person again, demanded one give him oral sex.
Following an FBI investigation, Jerry was arrested days later on a child pornography charge, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.
Court records show that Jerry admitted to soliciting sex from minors, engaging in sex with a 15-year-old, and requesting — and receiving — nude photos from 10 to 15 minors.
‘It’s been a very difficult year,’ coach Monica Aldama says in the new season. ‘A lot of great opportunities and a lot of awful times. ‘I keep putting one foot in front of the other. Every single day. Don’t have a choice.’
She reveals that she learned about the arrest at a dress rehearsal before her first live Dancing with the Stars show when an executive producer brought it to her attention.
‘It was like an out-of-body experience at the time. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was already terrified,’ she says.
Upon finding out, Coach Monica Aldama says ‘it was like an out-of-body experience at the time. I felt like I couldn’t breathe’
They held a virtual team meeting that night, and Coach Aldama says it ‘really felt like a funeral’
Aldama was surprised to receive an ‘optimistic’ letter from Harris after he was arrested, in which he discussed wanting to be a motivational speaker
Former teammate Gabi Butler was similarly shocked.
‘I was here in my room when I got the call about Jerry and immediately my heart completely sank. I honestly thought I was living in a bad dream. I literally couldn’t wrap my heard around any of that. I felt like someone had just like died,’ she said.
‘I completely broke down,’ she says, starting to cry. ‘I was like, screaming. I was literally screaming and crying at the same time. And I remember Maddy came out of her apartment and she just hugged me.’
Maddy Brum adds: ‘We all thought we knew every little piece of him, but we didn’t. Losing that person is a lot on people.’
La’Darius Marshall says he was scrolling through Twitter when he saw the news and thought, ‘This ain’t true. This can’t be true.’
‘I started crying and I called Gabi and she is bawling,’ he says.
‘I feel like I just sunk very deep,’ adds James Thomas. ‘I kind of just sunk into a hole and cried. And cried and cried and cried. And then I called my mom, and I was just talking to her, asking her like, “How?” I don’t understand, like, I was just there. He never said anything about this stuff to me and I could’ve helped, stopped or guided him somewhere else. I just kept asking myself questions.’
They held a virtual team meeting that night, and Coach Aldama says it ‘really felt like a funeral.’
‘And I’ve never seen the kids cry so hard. It was just an awful situation,’ she said, breaking down in tears herself,’ she says.
Grappling with the person they knew and the horrific charges against him has been difficult.
‘I was here in my room when I got the call about Jerry and immediately my heart completely sank. I honestly thought I was living in a bad dream,’ Gabi Butler said
‘I literally couldn’t wrap my heard around any of that. I felt like someone had just like died,’ she added
‘I completely broke down,’ she says, starting to cry. ‘I was like, screaming. I was literally screaming and crying at the same time’
‘I don’t agree with what he was accused of or condone it at all, and it is very unfortunate and it breaks my heart, but it’s literally like your family,’ says Gabi. ‘How are you going to just hate your family?
‘I feel like people expect me to be like, “Well, you should hate him, and you should never speak to him again,” but the thing is I can’t. I can’t turn my back on him because he was there for me when I needed it.’
In an interview with Extra, Gabi admitted that she still keeps in touch with Jerry.
La’Darius, meanwhile, says in the episode that it was tough to hear what Jerry was accused of when one of Jerry’s own friends experienced something similar.
‘I would have snatched him up if I ever would have known about any of this stuff. I feel like it would have been worse than him going to jail,’ he says.
‘I don’t care how famous you are, I don’t care how much money you got, how much people, how much love — that don’t give you the right to do stuff like this. E
‘specially when one of your best friends you know went through something like that.’
Meanwhile, Aldama was surprised to receive an ‘optimistic’ letter from Harris after he was arrested, in which he discussed wanting to be a motivational speaker.
‘There was not one negative thing in this letter,’ she says. ‘I just was really caught off guard at the hope he had for the future.’
‘I want to be supportive, yet I’m so disappointed. I don’t know what to say,’ she says.
Maddy Brum adds: ‘We all thought we knew every little piece of him, but we didn’t. Losing that person is a lot on people’
La’Darius Marshall says he was scrolling through Twitter when he saw the news and thought, ‘ This ain’t true. This can’t be true.’
‘I feel like I just sunk very deep,’ adds James Thomas. ‘I kind of just sunk into a hole and cried’
The arrest and the aftermath are focused on in season two, episode five
The episode also includes interviews with Charlie and Sam, whose lawsuit led to the charges.
Charlie alleges that in December of 2018, during his own first cheerleading season, Jerry messaged him on Instagram.
‘Like, basically just saying, “Hey.” And he asked me how old I was and I told him that I was 13, and then after that, right off the bat, he asked me, “Can I have butt pics?” or “Can you send butt pics?’ he recalls.
Charlie says he and Sam knew who Jerry was because he cheered for their ‘dream team.’
‘I was kind of starstruck and I didn’t want him to not like me or to not be friends with me,’ he says, admitting that he sent him a photo. ‘I was willing to do that and was kind of blindsighted by his notoriety at that time.’
He alleges that if he ever waited too long to respond to Jerry, or didn’t respond with a flirty enough tone, that Jerry would make him feel bad about himself and accuse Charlie of using him.
The next year, Charlie knew he would run into Jerry at a competition, so he did his best to avoid him — but was unsuccessful.
‘Jerry kept on harassing me and was like, “We should really find some way to hang out today.” And I was like, “No I don’t want to.” But then he was like, “Just go with me to this bathroom.”‘
The episode also includes interviews with Charlie and Sam, whose lawsuit led to the charges
‘Jerry kept on harassing me and was like, “We should really find some way to hang out today.” And I was like, “No I don’t want to,” Charlie said
In the bathroom, Jerry allegedly asked Charlie if he wanted to have sex.
‘I was like, “No, I do not.” And he was like, “What about oral sex?” And I was like, “I’m not comfortable with that either.”‘
He alleges that Jerry then cornered him in a bathroom stall where he begged him to have sex.
Sam says that he could tell something was wrong when Charlie came out of the bathroom, saying it was ‘haunting’ to hear what had happened.
‘It just made me so angry,’ Sam says. ‘It made me lose more faith in having a safe community in cheer.’
Sam says that Jerry soon started messaging him as well, which made him ‘uncomfortable.’ He would feel ‘sad’ and ‘angry’ and had trouble concentrating in school.
‘I wanted to say something about it but I also felt so ashamed and I was scared that if I was gonna tell my mom that she would report it, and I knew at that time if I were to report it that I would basically lose all my cheer friends, because they all love Jerry,’ says Charlie.
Sam says that Jerry soon started messaging him as well, which made him ‘uncomfortable.’ He would feel ‘sad’ and ‘angry’ and had trouble concentrating in school
Ultimately, their mother picked up Charlie’s phone and noticed a text message from Jerry, prompting her to investigate
Ultimately, their mother, Kristen, picked up Charlie’s phone and noticed a text message from Jerry which said, ‘I’m sorry for what I’ve done in the past. I don’t think it’s a good idea that we be friends on Snapchat anymore.’
She started talking to her sons and discovered what had been happening. During one discussion, she found a video that Jerry had sent to Charlie that showed him masturbating.
As time went on, the twins’ mother says they became more ‘clear about the fact that they had been victims’ and came on board with ‘making sure that something got done about it.’
Charlie says the final start was seeing Jerry get recognized by President Biden.
‘I lost it and I went up to my mom and was like, “I want to do something about this,”‘ he says.
They made multiple anonymous reports to USASF, they said, but when nothing was happening, they decided to take their claims forward to the press and the FBI.