A former Orange County cheerleading coach is facing more than 150 years in prison after being convicted of 23 felony counts of molesting several girls, some as young as 9, with allegations dating back to 1998.
Monday’s conviction of Tennessee native Erick Joseph Kristianson, 46, in Santa Ana helps close a legal saga that includes the suspect’s arrest in Fargo, N.D., in May 2023, on a warrant for charges in California.
Kristianson was convicted of 11 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts upon a minor under 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.
He’s due back in court March 19 for sentencing, which could result in a maximum term of 165 years to life, according to authorities.
“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,” said Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer in a statement.
A call to Kristianson’s public defender was not immediately returned.
Kristianson was first arrested in Kansas in 2022 and extradited to Daytona Beach. He was suspected of masturbating on camera to three children between 11 and 13 and inappropriately touching another 13-year-old girl, according to authorities.
At that time, he had been working at Champion Elite Legacy cheerleading gym in south Daytona Beach, which is now closed.
News from that arrest filtered back to Southern California where a victim contacted Orange County authorities.
The victim said she was molested by Kristianson when she was 14 while he was her cheer coach, according to court documents. Kristianson had sex with the girl during her school lunch, taking her to his home or the beach, according to court documents.
Kristianson’s California allegations date from 1998 to 2006, with the majority of charges happening between 2002 and 2004, according to court documents.
Kristianson worked as a competitive cheerleading coach at now shuttered Magic All-Stars of Anaheim, from 2002 to 2005, and as an assistant cheer coach at Mission Viejo’s Trabuco Hills High School from 2004 to 2006.
It was at the latter location where he was accused of gaining access to and molesting eight young girls, according to authorities.
Two additional victims knew Kristianson through a family member and through his employment in 1999 and 2000 as a South Orange County YMCA sleep-away camp counselor, according to authorities.
He routinely transported girls to non-cheer-sanctioned events and to his home, where he would molest them, according to court documents.
The girls ranged in age from 9 to 16.
Two of the girls said they left cheerleading after Kristianson repeatedly molested them, according to court documents.
They did not report the abuse at the time out of fear and embarrassment, they told authorities.
“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,” Spitzer said. “Pedophiles will never stop until law enforcement stops them.”
Kristianson was initially arrested in Kansas in 2022 on a warrant and extradited to Florida. He posted a $300,000 bond and was released without restrictions.
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