Canada, G7 urge 'all parties' to de-escalate in growing Mideast conflict
Canada called for "all parties" to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A prosecutor has asked a federal judge to sentence Jerry Harris, a former star of the Netflix documentary series "Cheer," to 15 years in prison for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions.
Attorneys for Harris are seeking a sentence of six years.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Guzman wrote in a sentencing memo late Wednesday that Harris used "his status as a competitive cheerleader, his social media persona, and eventually his celebrity and money, to persuade and entice his young victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him or with him."
Guzman also requested the sentence include 10 years of supervised release after the prison term.
Harris, 22, of suburban Naperville, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count each of receiving child pornography and traveling with the intention to engage in illegal sexual conduct. He is due to be sentenced July 6 by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah.
Defense attorneys, in asking that a six-year sentence be followed by eight years of supervised release, described Harris as "both victimizer and victim," saying he was sexually assaulted himself when he was a child.
"The trauma he experienced as a child normalized his skewed version of what he understood to be appropriate relationships. No one was there to stand up for him when he was sexually assaulted as a minor. He is grateful that is not the case for his victims in this case, to whom he is profoundly remorseful." defense attorneys wrote.
Federal prosecutors acknowledged the actor's traumatic childhood was a mitigating factor in his crimes, but said "while Harris's childhood was very difficult, it was not a blank check to commit sex offenses against minors."
Harris remains in custody at a federal detention facility.
Harris was arrested in September 2020 on a charge of production of child pornography. Prosecutors alleged at the time that he solicited videos and images from two 14-year-old brothers.
According to a complaint, federal prosecutors said that Harris admitted to repeatedly asking a minor teen for pornographic videos and images between December 2018 and March 2020.
Then in December of that year, he was indicted on more charges alleging misconduct in Illinois, Florida and Texas. According to the indictment, Harris allegedly solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos of themselves.
Harris admitted to FBI agents to asking a teenage boy to send him lewd photographs of himself, and to requesting child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors, according to the indictment.
"Cheer" was a huge success when it was released in January 2020 and Harris became wildly popular for his upbeat attitude and his encouraging "mat talk." Harris even interviewed celebrities on the red carpet at the Academy Awards for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
The docuseries follows the competitive cheerleading squad from Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.
Canada called for "all parties" to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
On Friday, the pop star released her 11th album and at 2 a.m. Eastern, she released "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," featuring 15 additional songs.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel, and urged both sides to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.