A former cheerleading coach has been convicted of 23 felony counts after he abused ten girls in a case tied to years of alleged misconduct during his time working with youth cheer programs.
Erick Joseph Kristianson was convicted by a California jury on Monday, December 15, of eleven felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts upon a minor under age 14 years of age, four felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts upon a child age 14 or 15, six felony counts of sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor under 18 and two felony counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object of a minor under 16, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Kristianson, 46, collectively abused ten girls in Orange County, according to authorities. The sexual abuse took place between 2002 and 2006 while he was working as a competitive cheerleading coach at Magic All-Stars and as an assistant cheer coach at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo, as well as when he worked as a counselor at a South Orange County YMCA sleep-away camp in 1999 and 2000.
His victims ranged in age from 9 to 16, according to the district attorney’s office. Two of the victims reported that they stopped cheerleading after the abuse, though they chose to not come forward at the time due to fear and embarrassment.
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Many of the victims came forward after Kristianson was arrested in 2022 on suspicion of masturbating on camera to three children, who ranged from the ages of 11 and 13, and touching a 13-year-old girl’s private parts, according to the release. All of his victims in the incidents were members of the Champion Elite Legacy cheer club he coached at the time.
Following his 2022 arrest, Kristianson was extradited to Florida to face the charges. He posted a $300,000 bond and was released without restrictions on leaving the state, according to the news release.
The district attorney’s office said that one Orange County victim contacted investigators after she heard of Kristianson’s arrest, and she reported that he began molesting her when she was 14 and he was her cheer coach.
The victim claimed that he would meet her during school lunch and take her to his home or the beach, and the abuse continued until she was 15.
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The district attorney’s office said Kristianson frequently took girls he coached to non-sanctioned events and to his home, where he would molest them.
He was arrested in 2023 in Fargo, North Dakota, on a felony warrant related to the Orange County case, according to the release. He was then extradited back to Southern California to face prosecution.
Kristianson is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19, 2026, at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. He is currently facing a maximum possible sentence of 165 years to life in state prison, according to the district attorney’s office.
“For decades, Erick Kristianson used cheerleading gyms in Orange County and across the country as a kind of perverted catalog from which to select the next young girl he was going to molest,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said following the ruling. “He was hiding in plain sight, a trusted coach banking on the fact that he could trust his young victims not to say anything about the abuse they were enduring. Pedophiles will never stop until law enforcement stops them. And this conviction ensures that these young women have a voice to speak out against the sexual abuse they endured as children.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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