On July 6, local time, Jerry Harris, a college student who became popular in the United States two years ago for the Netflix documentary "Cheerleaders", was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Chicago court for coercing children to send pornographic images and videos and luring

The Paper reporter Cheng Xiaojun

On July 6, local time, Jerry Harris, an American college student who became popular two years ago for Netflix documentary "Cheer", was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Chicago court on charges of: Coercing children to send pornographic images and videos and luring minors into having sex.

Jerry Harris

Jerry Harris was born in Chicago on July 14, 1999. He studied at Navarro College, a two-year institution at Texas Community University. Although it is only a community college established in 1946, Navarro has a strong sports atmosphere. The school baseball team nicknamed the "Bulldogs" often achieves good results, and together with the school cheerleading team also named the "Bulldogs", He has also continuously achieved good results in various cheerleading championships in the United States.

The cheerleading team was originally a non-governmental fan organization that originated from the American football game. Since then, it has gradually developed in a professional and specialization direction, combining the characteristics of gymnastics, acrobatics and other projects; since the middle of the last century, the United States has launched a national cheerleading competition. During the event, the cheerleading team also became the focus of the audience from the green leaves outside the venue. Historically, cheerleading-related activities have been held in various colleges and universities across the United States, and the stars of the cheerleading team can receive as much attention as the sports stars on campus.

In this context, including the American TV series "Glee" and the movies "Cheerleader" (But I'm a Cheerleader, 1999), "Bring It On" (Bring It On, 2000), "Hot Girls" "Bank Robbery" (Sugar Spice, 2001), "Hot Girl Bodyguard" (Hot Girl Bodyguard) (Hot Girl Bodyguard) (House of the House, 2005), "Cheerleader Summer Camp" (Fired Up, 2009), including Hollywood is also very keen on shooting such themes.

The Netflix documentary "Cheerleaders", which was released in January 2020, was filmed for two seasons and 15 episodes in total. It follows the experience of the Navarro College "Bulldogs" cheerleading team in participating in the National Cheerleading Competition. It has a high rating of 97% on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" degree, and also won multiple awards at the 2020 Emmy Awards. "Cheerleaders" mainly focuses on the stories that happen to coach Monica and the five cheerleaders in the team. Among the five young people, Jerry Harris is especially popular with the audience for his positive personality and unfortunate life experience. Like him, he became a household name among American audiences almost overnight.

Poster of the documentary "Cheerleaders"

When Jerry Harris was 16 years old, his mother died of lung cancer. To support him in continuing his studies, friends and family opened accounts for him on crowdfunding platforms, raising thousands of dollars. After successfully enrolling in Navarro College, he was very involved in cheerleading activities in middle school and naturally became a member of the "Bulldogs". However, due to various reasons, he could only sit on the sidelines most of the time and was unable to enter the first team. sports. Even so, Jerry Harris, who has an optimistic personality, never gave up. He cheered for his teammates in his own way and spared no effort. This participation attitude soon made him the most popular figure in the entire documentary.

Jerry Harris participated in " The Ellen Show "

After two years of college, Jerry Harris won a $10,000 scholarship from University of Louisville , and the reopened crowdfunding platform activities also started in a short time. In just a few months, it raised $60,000 in donations. He also appeared on the well-known TV show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" with his coach and several friends. The host Ellen DeGeneres even invited him to be a guest reporter on the show. He was a guest reporter at the 2020 Oscars. At the carpet ceremony, many celebrities in the film and television industry were interviewed on the spot. In June 2020, Biden , who was running for President of the United States at the time, made a special online video connection with Jerry Harris in order to win more votes from young African Americans. How popular was the latter at the time? High, as can be seen from this. Unexpectedly, the seemingly bright future soon came to an abrupt end.

Jerry Harris (left) interviews Brad Pitt as a guest reporter on the 2020 Oscars red carpet.

Just three months after the connection with Biden, on September 17, 2020, the FBI suddenly arrested Jerry Harris on charges of luring minors to have sex. It is said that while he was studying in college in 2019, he contacted a pair of 13-year-old twin brothers through the Internet, asked them to send him ambiguous pictures, and proposed to have sex with them offline. Soon after, the Chicago federal court formally heard the case. Harris admitted that he had had sexual relations with a 15-year-old boy and also instigated more than a dozen minors to send him obscene images on online chat software. As the investigation deepened, four more minor victims surfaced, bringing the total number of charges against Harris to nine.

Since then, due to the epidemic, the trial process of the case has been slowed down, and the court did not reopen until February this year. Harris admitted two of the charges on the spot - coercing children to send pornographic images and videos, and luring minors to have sex - and was ordered by the judge to be detained immediately without bail. As for the sentence, the defense lawyer who originally insisted on the client's innocence implored the court to set the sentence at about six years, while the prosecutor requested a heavy punishment of fifteen years fixed-term imprisonment .

On July 6, Judge Manish Shah finally made the final sentencing and decided to sentence him to twelve years in prison. He told Harris in court that the reason for such a sentence was taking into account " Despite the seriousness of your crimes, I hope your future will not be completely lost, and I hope you can start a new life one day." Harris also apologized to the victim in court and defended himself, saying: "I am not a heinous person. Who am I and what is my goal in life? I am still figuring it out."

Responsibility Editor: Chengyu