Erick Joseph Kristianson.Photo: Credit: Volusia County Jail
A competitive cheerleading coach who had been accused of exposing himself to teenage girls in Florida and fondling another girl has now been accused of molesting six young athletes as young as 11 in California, authorities say.
Erick Joseph Kristianson, 44, of Antioch, Tenn., was arrested Monday in Fargo, N.D., on a warrant for allegedly molesting six girls while coaching at a competitive cheer club and a high school in Mission Viejo, Calif., Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced ina statement Wednesday.
Kristianson faces a maximum sentence of 105 years to life plus five years and four months if convicted on all charges.
He has been extradited back to California, where he is being held without bail, online court records show. He is scheduled to appear in court on May 26. It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
“Pedophiles will never stop stalking and grooming their prey unless they are stopped,” Spitzer said in the statement.
“This was not a predator hiding in the shadows waiting to grab innocent girls,” he said. “He was hiding in plain sight as he assaulted girl after girl, thinking he would never be caught because they trusted him as a coach.
“Thankfully, he is in custody and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office will do everything it can to ensure he is held accountable for assaulting these young girls who thought they could trust him.”
At the time of Kristianson’s arrest for the Orange County charges, he was out on bail on alleged child molestation and child exhibition charges related to four young competitive cheer athletes he coached in Daytona Beach,The Daytona Beach News-Journalreports.
Spitzer said in his statement that the allegations against Kristianson involving the teens in California “came to light in 2022 after he was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida, on suspicion of masturbating on camera to three children between the ages of 11 and 13 and touching the breasts of another 13-year-old girl.”
All of the Florida alleged victims were students of Kristianson’s competitive cheer club in Daytona Beach, the statement said.
Kristianson is accused of “picking up the girl from school or taking her home from cheer practice and engaging in sexual activity with her until she turned 16,” it said.
Kristianson worked as a competitive cheerleading coach at Magic All-Stars Cheer in Anaheim from 2002 to 2008 and as an assistant cheer coach at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo in 2005, where is accused of gaining access to six young girls that he allegedly molested in Orange County, according to Spitzer.
Kristianson is accused of molesting five other Orange County girls he coached between 2002 and 2007, routinely taking some of the girls to off-campus events and to his home where he would molest them, according to authorities. The girls ranged in age from 11 to 16 years old. One of the girls quit cheerleading after Kristianson allegedly molested her at his home, but she did not report the alleged abuse at the time.
In August 2022, Kristianson was arrested in Kansas on a warrant and extradited back to Florida to face charges for exposing himself to three teenage girls during a FaceTime call.
That month, he posted a $300,000 bond and was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail in Florida without any restrictions on leaving the state,The Daytona Beach News-Journalreports.
Kristianson is currently being held without bail at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
source: people.com
