Orange County cheerleading coach convicted of molesting 10 girls

An Orange County cheerleading coach was convicted Monday of more than two dozen felony sex charges for molesting 10 girls, with some of the offenses dating back more than two decades.

Jurors convicted Erick Joseph Kristianson, 46, on their first day of deliberations in a Santa Ana courtroom.

Kristianson faced 25 felony sex charges involving 10 victims, with one Florida girl’s allegations included in the trial to support the claim of a pattern of abuse.

Former Orange County cheerleading coach Erick Joseph Kristianson is on trial, facing felony charges of molesting girls as young as 11 years old.

(Associated Press)

Kristianson, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 19, testified that he never molested any of the girls and that when he worked with some of the accusers in gyms there were security cameras in place. He also said he didn’t lose his virginity until he was 27.

The accusers from Orange County were simply “living their lives until 2022,” when Kristianson was arrested in a case out of Florida, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Juliet Oliver in her closing argument.

“It became apparent the man who did it to them did it again in Florida,’’ Oliver said.

One of the alleged victims saw the news in Florida and came forward to Orange County sheriff’s investigators, Oliver said.

“We saw their raw emotion,” Oliver said of the accusers who testified. “The mere sight of him brought them to tears.”

The accusers had no other ulterior motive to come forward, and one of the alleged victims flew to Orange County to testify in the case, Oliver argued.

“This is not a woman making things up,” Oliver said. “She knew it was the right thing to do and wanted to get through it as quickly as possible and she told you that on the stand.”

A news release issued by the O.C. district attorney’s office in May 2023 spurred a handful of victims to come forward, she said, adding that accusers did not immediately come forward because they felt embarrassment, shame, guilt and were full of self-blame.

They also felt an “imbalance” at the time, as Kristianson was an adult and celebrated coach, Oliver argued.

One of the alleged victims told her mother she was molested in November 2005, and another told a therapist at the end of 2006, while another accuser told a friend in 2018, the prosecutor alleged.

Oliver said Kristianson was “brazen, bold and only getting more and more emboldened as the years went on.” He was detained in November 2005 and questioned by deputies, but wasn’t charged.

“Of course he denies it,” Oliver said. “He’s been denying this from day one. He’s had over two decades to come up with this absolutely ridiculous story that he was never alone with these girls... It’s simply absurd, but it’s certainly not a surprise.”

One of the accusers was 14 when she met Kristianson in 1999 through a YMCA summer camp, Oliver said, adding the defendant was 21 at the time. “Flirtatious” messages eventually graduated to his taking her to a Trabuco Hills High School dance, the proescutor said.

Kristianson would later engage in sex acts with her in a local community center and in his car, Oliver said.

“She repeatedly said to him she wanted to be his girlfriend,” the proecutor said. “She was so excited to go to the dance with him. She loved the attention she was getting from him.”

Another accuser met him in 1998, when she was 11 years old, as the friend of Kristianson’s younger brother, Oliver said. The defendant sexually assaulted her as they watched a movie together, she argued.

Kristianson testified that he went to a Bible study group in Australia at the beginning of one of the years she accused him of sexually assaulting her and then enrolled in and lived on campus at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, so the alleged crime couldn’t have happened.

But Oliver maintained that Kristianson had returned from Australia by the summer in question.

Another accuser said she met him when in 2002 when she was 11 and he was a cheerleading coach at Magic All Stars. The defendant also coached cheerleading at Trabuco Hills High School in 2005.

Kristianson testified how he formed a surfing club with some of the cheerleaders as a team-bonding experience. Oliver said the accuser would “hang out” with him before practice and get surfing lessons from him as they had sex multiple times a week, the prosecutor argued.

“She left Magic All Stars to get away” from him ultimately, she said, adding that before the girl left, “It got to a point she would just acquiesce. She knew every time it was going to happen. It was easier than speaking out.”

Because of the “power differential,” she didn’t think anyone would listen to her, Oliver said.

One accuser said Kristianson started molesting her when she was 9 years old in 2002, according to the prosecutor. In one instance during a cheerleading session, “He puts her on his lap at an extremely opportune time — he had an erection,” Oliver said.

The girl was too young to understand at the time that he was aroused. Kristianson allegedly told the girl, “You can touch it if you want to,” Oliver said.

Another accuser was 15 when the defendant allegedly sexually assaulted her as her cheerleading coach, Oliver said. He would allegedly pick her up at Dana Hills High School and assault her in her home whirlpool spa and in her bedroom, Oliver said.

Eventually, the teen came up with a false excuse that she had to undergo “nose surgery,” and so had to quit cheerleading, Oliver said.

Another accuser was 16 when she met him through cheerleading in 2004, and yet another alleged victim was 13 around the same time, according to Oliver.

One of the accusers “felt she was in a relationship with the defendant,” Oliver said. “She felt that she loved him and that he loved her. Up until recently she felt she still loved him, something she’s battled with.”

Another alleged victim said she was 12 when he allegedly touched her inappropriately.

Kristianson was questioned about that by sheriff’s deputies but wasn’t charged.

“Yes, he should have been arrested, but he wasn’t,” Oliver said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t handled like it should have been.”

That accuser testified she’s struggled with substance abuse since the alleged acts took place, Oliver said. She told her mother about the abuse because he was trying to take her to the movies again and her mother said it was OK, Oliver said.

Kristianson’s attorney, Cyrus Shahrooz Tabibnia, argued that one of the accusers remained the defendant’s “friend” on Instagram over the past “15 or 20 years or so,” until he was arrested.

“I would suggest her claims are not credible,” Tabibnia said.

The defense attorney also argued that some of the accusers could not accurately describe his residences or his “private parts” when he questioned them during their testimony.

Some of the accusers are “relying on alleged memories from 25 years ago. This is the problem with this case,” Tabibnia said.

Two of the accusers have substance abuse issues and jurors can consider that to weigh their credibility, Tabibnia argued.