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A former Orange County cheerleading coach is dealing with greater than 150 years in jail after being convicted of 23 felony counts of molesting a number of ladies, some as younger as 9, with allegations courting again to 1998.
Monday’s conviction of Tennessee native Erick Joseph Kristianson, 46, in Santa Ana helps shut a authorized saga that features the suspect’s arrest in Fargo, N.D., in Could 2023, on a warrant for prices in California.
Kristianson was convicted of 11 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts upon a minor below 14 years of age, 4 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts upon a baby age 14 or 15, six felony counts of sexual penetration by international object of a minor below 18, and two felony counts of sexual penetration by a international object of a minor below 16.
He’s due again in court docket March 19 for sentencing, which may end in a most time period of 165 years to life, in keeping with authorities.
“For many years, Erick Kristianson used cheerleading gyms in Orange County and throughout the nation as a sort of perverted catalog from which to pick the subsequent younger woman he was going to molest,” mentioned Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer in an announcement.
This {photograph}, offered by the Orange County district lawyer’s workplace, exhibits former Orange County cheerleading coach Erick Joseph Kristianson. Kristianson has been charged with molesting ladies as younger as 11 years previous in Southern California and he faces related prices in Florida.
(Orange County district lawyer’s workplace through Related Press)
A name to Kristianson’s public defender was not instantly returned.
Kristianson was first arrested in Kansas in 2022 and extradited to Daytona Seashore. He was suspected of masturbating on digicam to a few youngsters between 11 and 13 and inappropriately touching one other 13-year-old woman, in keeping with authorities.
At the moment, he had been working at Champion Elite Legacy cheerleading gymnasium in south Daytona Seashore, which is now closed.
Information from that arrest filtered again to Southern California the place a sufferer contacted Orange County authorities.
The sufferer mentioned she was molested by Kristianson when she was 14 whereas he was her cheer coach, in keeping with court docket paperwork. Kristianson had intercourse with the woman throughout her faculty lunch, taking her to his dwelling or the seaside, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Kristianson’s California allegations date from 1998 to 2006, with the vast majority of prices occurring between 2002 and 2004, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Kristianson labored as a aggressive cheerleading coach at now shuttered Magic All-Stars of Anaheim, from 2002 to 2005, and as an assistant cheer coach at Mission Viejo’s Trabuco Hills Excessive College from 2004 to 2006.
It was on the latter location the place he was accused of getting access to and molesting eight younger ladies, in keeping with authorities.
Two extra victims knew Kristianson via a member of the family and thru his employment in 1999 and 2000 as a South Orange County YMCA sleep-away camp counselor, in keeping with authorities.
He routinely transported ladies to non-cheer-sanctioned occasions and to his dwelling, the place he would molest them, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
The ladies ranged in age from 9 to 16.
Two of the ladies mentioned they left cheerleading after Kristianson repeatedly molested them, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
They didn’t report the abuse on the day out of worry and embarrassment, they advised authorities.
“He was hiding in plain sight, a trusted coach banking on the truth that he may belief his younger victims to not say something concerning the abuse they have been enduring,” Spitzer mentioned. “Pedophiles won’t ever cease till legislation enforcement stops them.”
Kristianson was initially arrested in Kansas in 2022 on a warrant and extradited to Florida. He posted a $300,000 bond and was launched with out restrictions.
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