The criminal case against former Naperville resident and “Cheer” star Jerry Harris is back in the spotlight after a dispute broke out between two cast members of the Paramount+ series “The Challenge: Cutthroat.”
Justin Hinsley, 27, a former cheerleading teammate of Harris, was eliminated from the competition show on Wednesday’s episode. Following his exit, he told Page Six that co-star Anna Leigh Wilson, 31, had brought up his past public support for Harris during the show in an attempt to deflect criticism aimed at her.
“I think her going there was just trying to find some way to get the heat taken off of her because there was a bunch of ways to get heat on her, and she was digging for something for me,” Hinsley said.
Harris, also 27, was charged in September 2020 after the FBI searched his home in Naperville, Illinois, as part of a child pornography investigation. Authorities alleged he solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and coerced teenage boys into sending him inappropriate photos.
In February 2022, Harris pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old and to paying a 17-year-old for sexually explicit photos and videos. He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
In 2022, Hinsley was among a group identified in a Reddit thread as “Cheer Friends” who recorded a character statement in Harris’ defense.
Hinsley said being confronted over that past support on the reality show felt like a low blow, since it is “the one and only thing that I’ve ever done in my entire life” that could be used against him.
“I was young. It was years and years ago, there’s so many different layers to it. And that was just her way of trying to drag me down into the mud, and I guess that just shows the character that she has as a person.”
Hinsley also accused Wilson, who has been married since 2020, of flirting with another cast member during the season, saying he never had to dig into her past to create a narrative about her.
“She wanted to go dig, she went and dug, and she started a little bit of a war with that scenario,” he said. “It is what it is. It’s public knowledge.”
Wilson, in a separate interview, defended her decision to raise Hinsley’s past support for Harris.
“If people are listening to the morale police of Justin, then I think they need to look up the Jerry Harris situation. I didn’t see it, but if you’re interested in what I’m talking about, look it up, and maybe take a step back and look at who you’re getting your information from, especially when they’re judging someone’s character.”
Hinsley said the fallout from the Harris case, which unfolded when he was in his early 20s, remains difficult to discuss.
“It happened when I was 20, 21 years old. That was almost six, seven years ago,” he said. “So there’s a lot of different layers and there’s a lot things that we weren’t told about while we’re doing it.”
He added that as more information came out over the years, “it’s hard to navigate those types of things, and you have to do it in a very meticulous way.”
“The Challenge: Cutthroat” releases new episodes Wednesdays on Paramount+.
