Former O.C. cheerleading coach charged with molestation, faces similar charges in Florida
A former Orange County competitive cheerleading coach has been charged with molesting girls as young as 11 in Southern California and faces similar charges in Florida, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Erick Joseph Kristianson, 44, of Antioch, Tenn., was arrested last week in Fargo, N.D., on a warrant, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a statement.
He was extradited back to California and was being held without bail Wednesday, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department website.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
In California, Kristianson is accused of molesting girls aged 11 to 16 while coaching at the Magic All-Stars club, a competitive cheer club, and while he was an assistant cheer coach at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo in the 2000s, prosecutors said. He is facing 16 felony counts, including committing lewd acts on a child.
Kristianson could face a possible life sentence if convicted of all charges.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has launched a civil rights investigation into the Antioch Police Department. Reports detail bigoted messages.
“This was not a predator hiding in the shadows waiting to grab innocent girls. 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,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in the statement.
In Florida, Kristianson is facing charges of child exhibition and child molestation after he allegedly exposed himself and masturbated during a FaceTime call to three girls, aged 11 to 13, whom he coached in Daytona Beach and, on another occasion, allegedly fondled the breast of a 13-year-old girl who had been on the call, authorities said.
He was arrested last year in Kansas on a warrant and extradited to Florida, but posted bond and was released, prosecutors said.
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