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.<\/p>\n
Jurors convicted Erick Joseph Kristianson, 46, on their first day of deliberations in a Santa Ana courtroom. He was convicted on 23 felony child sex assault counts with sentencing enhancements for multiple victims and substantial sexual conduct.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t lose his virginity until he was 27.<\/p>\n
The accusers from Orange County were \u201cliving their lives until 2022\u201d when Kristianson was arrested in a case out of Florida, Deputy District Attorney Juliet Oliver said in her closing argument of the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt became apparent the man who did it to them did it again in Florida,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
One of the alleged victims saw the news in Florida and came forward to Orange County sheriff\u2019s investigators, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw their raw emotion,\u201d Oliver said of the accusers who testified. \u201cThe mere sight of him brought them to tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accusers had no other ulterior motive to come forward, Oliver argued.<\/p>\n
One victim had to fly to Orange County to testify in the case, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a woman making things up,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
A statement issued by the District Attorney\u2019s Office in May 2023 spurred a handful of victims to come forward, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
The accusers felt \u201cembarrassment, shame, guilty, self-blame,\u201d Oliver said to explain why it took them years to come forward.<\/p>\n
They also felt an \u201cimbalance\u201d at the time as he was an adult and celebrated coach, Oliver argued.<\/p>\n
One victim told her mother she was molested in November 2005, and another told a therapist at the end of 2006, Oliver said. Another accuser told a friend in 2018, she added.<\/p>\n
Oliver said Kristianson was \u201cbrazen, bold and only getting more and more emboldened as the years went on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kristianson was detained in November 2005 and questioned by deputies, but wasn\u2019t charged, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course he denies it,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cHe\u2019s been denying this from day one. He\u2019s had over two decades to come up with this absolutely ridiculous story that he was never alone with these girls\u2026 It\u2019s simply absurd but it\u2019s certainly not a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
One accuser was 14 when she met him in 1999 through a YMCA summer camp, Oliver said, adding the defendant was 21. \u201cFlirtatious\u201d messages eventually graduated to him taking her to a Trabuco Hills High School dance, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Kristianson would engage in sex acts with her in a local community center and in his car, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe repeatedly said to him she wanted to be his girlfriend,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cShe was so excited to go to the dance with him. She loved the attention she was getting from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another accuser met him in 1998 when she was 11 years old as the friend of Kristianson\u2019s younger brother, Oliver said. The defendant sexually assaulted her as they watched a movie together, Oliver argued.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t have happened.<\/p>\n
But Oliver argued that Kristianson was back from Australia by the summer and the accuser remembered it happened just before her sister was born.<\/p>\n
Another accuser said she met him when she was 11 in 2002 and he was a cheerleading coach at Magic All Star. The defendant also coached cheerleading at Trabuco Hills High School in 2005.<\/p>\n
Kristianson testified how he formed a surfing club with some of the cheerleaders as a team-bonding experience. Oliver said the accuser would \u201chang out\u201d with him before practice and get surfing lessons from him as they had sex multiple times a week, Oliver argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe left Magic All Stars to get away\u201d from him eventually, Oliver argued.<\/p>\n
Before she left, \u201cIt got to a point she would just acquiesce. She knew every time it was going to happen. It was easier than speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the \u201cpower differential,\u201d she didn\u2019t think anyone would listen to her, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
One accuser said he started molesting her when she was 9 years old in 2002 through 2004, Oliver said. In one instance during a cheerleading session, \u201cHe puts her on his lap at an extremely opportune time \u2014 he had an erection,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
The girl was too young to understand at the time that he was aroused, Oliver argued.<\/p>\n
Kristianson allegedly told her, \u201cYou can touch it if you want to,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
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 jacuzzi and in her bedroom, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the teen came up with a false excuse that she had to undergo \u201cnose surgery,\u201d so she had to quit cheerleading, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Another accuser was 16 when she met him through cheerleading in 2004, and another alleged victim was 13 around the same time, Oliver said.<\/p>\n
One accuser \u201cfelt she was in a relationship with the defendant,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe felt that she loved him and that he loved her,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cUp until recently she felt she still loved him, something she\u2019s battled with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another alleged victim said she was 12 when he \u201ctouched my pee pee in a movie theater,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Kristianson was questioned about that by sheriff\u2019s deputies, but wasn\u2019t charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he should have been arrested, but he wasn\u2019t,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cUnfortunately, it wasn\u2019t handled like it should have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
That accuser testified she\u2019s struggled with substance abuse, 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.<\/p>\n
Kristianson\u2019s attorney, Cyrus Shahrooz Tabibnia argued that one of the accusers remained his \u201cfriend\u201d on Instagram over the past \u201c15 or 20 years or so,\u201d until he was arrested.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would suggest her claims are not credible,\u201d Tabibnia said.<\/p>\n
The defense attorney also argued that some of the accusers could not accurately describe his residences or his \u201cprivate parts\u201d when he questioned them during testimony.<\/p>\n
Some of the accusers are \u201crelying on alleged memories from 25 years ago. This is the problem with this case,\u201d Tabibnia said.<\/p>\n
Two of the accusers have substance abuse issues and jurors can consider that to weigh their credibility, Tabibnia argued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Orange County cheerleading coach was convicted Monday of more than two dozen felony sex charges for molesting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,52783,4690,5685,166,9515,15727,171],"class_list":["post-96158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-cheerleading","tag-coach","tag-convicted","tag-county","tag-girls","tag-molesting","tag-orange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}