Alleged victims in California started to come back ahead after the defendant was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of masturbating on digital camera to 3 youngsters between the ages of 11 and 13 and touching the personal components of one other 13-year-old lady in Florida.
A repeat baby sexual abuse offender is the opportunity of life in jail after he was discovered responsible by a jury on 23 separate felony counts in relation to his alleged molestation of 10 women as younger as 9 years outdated.
The alleged offenses occurred whereas Erick Joseph Kristianson, 46, of Antioch, Tennessee labored in Orange County, California as a aggressive cheerleading coach at Magic All-Stars from 2002 to 2005 and at Trabuco Hills Excessive College in Mission Viejo from 2004 to 2006, in addition to a YMCA sleepaway camp counselor from 1999 to 2000.
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His arrest got here in 2023 after an arrest the yr prior on comparable costs impressed alleged victims to start coming ahead, in line with a press launch from the Orange County District Lawyer’s Workplace.
Final Monday, Kristianson was convicted on 11 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts upon a minor underneath age 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 underneath 18, and two felony counts of sexual penetration by a international object of a minor underneath 16.
The allegations courting to the flip of the century got here to mild after Kristianson’s 2022 arrest in Kansas associated to costs in Daytona Seaside, Florida, the place he was accused of masturbating on digital camera to 3 youngsters between the ages of 11 and 13 years outdated, and touching the personal components of a special 13-year-old lady, per the DA’s assertion.
All of those alleged victims had been a part of the Champion Elite Legacy cheerleading fitness center in South Daytona Seaside membership, the place Kristianson was working, in line with the Los Angeles Instances and CBS Information. Each cheer services Kristianson labored at are actually closed, notes the Instances and USA At present.
After media experiences of his arrest started to flow into, a lady contacted authorities in Orange County, California to report that she was allegedly molested by Kristianson when he was her cheer coach.
She stated that the alleged abuse started when she was 14 years outdated, claiming Kristianson would meet up together with her throughout her lunch in school to take her to the seashore and his dwelling to have interaction in “sexual exercise.” The girl claimed this carried on by way of the age of 15.
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The girl’s claims launched an investigation that led to allegations Kristianson had molested seven further women between the years of 2002 and 2006 whereas he was working as a cheer coach with two completely different organizations.
The DA’s report alleges Kristianson would “routinely” take them to “non-cheer-sanctioned occasions and to his dwelling the place he would molest them.” Two of the women stated they left the game due to the alleged repeated abuse, however didn’t report it on the time attributable to “concern and embarrassment.”
Two extra victims got here ahead with allegations in opposition to Kristianson courting again to his employment as a sleepaway camp counselor with the South Orange County YMCA. In addition they stated they knew him by way of members of the family. The ten victims ranged in age from 9 to 16 years outdated on the time of the alleged abuses.
Kristanson posted $300,000 bond after his arrest and extradition to Florida in August 2022 and was launched with none journey restrictions. He was then picked up in 2023 in Fargo, North Dakota on a felony warrant in connection to the case in Orange County.
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“For many years, Erick Kristianson used cheerleading gyms in Orange County and throughout the nation as a form of perverted catalog from which to pick the following younger lady he was going to molest,” stated Orange County District Lawyer Todd Spitzer in his workplace’s assertion.
“He was hiding in plain sight, a trusted coach banking on the truth that he might belief his younger victims to not say something concerning the abuse they had been enduring,” Spitzer continued. “Pedophiles won’t ever cease till regulation enforcement stops them. And this conviction ensures that these younger girls have a voice to talk out in opposition to the sexual abuse they endured as youngsters.”
His most doable sentence is 165 years to life in jail, plus six years and eight months in state jail, when he’s sentenced March 19, 2026. Moreover, he’s nonetheless going through baby intercourse costs in Florida for his alleged crimes there, per USA At present.
In case you consider you or another person is the sufferer of kid sexual exploitation, the Nationwide Heart for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters gives 24/7 assist for these in want at 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678), or at report.cybertip.org. You may as well contact the FBI at ideas.fbi.gov.
The Nationwide Sexual Assault Phone Hotline — 800.656.HOPE (4673) — gives free, 24/7 assist for these in want.
