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A former cheerleading coach has been convicted of 23 felonies for abusing ten girls in a case related to years of alleged misconduct while he was on the youth cheerleading team.
Eric Joseph Christiansen was found guilty by a California jury on Monday, Dec. 15, of 11 felony counts of lewd or lascivious conduct with a minor under the age of 14, four felony counts of lewd or lascivious conduct with a child 14 or 15 years old, six felony counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object with a minor under the age of 18, and two felony counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object with a minor under the age of 16, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Press release.
According to authorities, Christiansen, 46, sexually abused 10 girls in a group in Orange County. The sexual abuse occurred between 2002 and 2006 while he was a competitive cheerleading coach with the Magic All-Stars, an assistant cheerleading coach at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo and a counselor at a South Orange County YMCA overnight camp in 1999 and 2000.
His victims ranged in age from 9 to 16, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Two victims reported that they stopped cheerleading after the abuse but chose not to come forward at the time due to fear and embarrassment.
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Christiansen was arrested in 2022 after he allegedly masturbated on camera to three children ranging in age from 11 to 13 years old and touched the private parts of a 13-year-old girl, according to a news release. All of the victims in these incidents were members of the Champions Elite Legacy Cheer Club he coached at the time.
After his arrest in 2022, Christiansen was extradited to Florida to face charges. He posted $300,000 bail and was released without restrictions from leaving the state, according to the release.
The district attorney’s office said an Orange County victim who contacted investigators after hearing about Christiansen’s arrest reported that he began molesting her when she was 14 years old, while he was her cheerleading coach.
The victim claimed he would see her at school lunches and take her to his home or the beach, with the abuse continuing until she was 15.
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The district attorney’s office said Christiansen frequently took the girls he mentored to unsanctioned events and to his home, where he molested them.
He was arrested in Fargo, North Dakota, in 2023 on a felony warrant related to the Orange County case, according to the release. He was later extradited to Southern California to face prosecution.
Christiansen is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19, 2026, at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. He currently faces a maximum sentence of 165 years to life in state prison, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
“For decades, Eric Christiansen used cheerleading gyms in Orange County and across the country as a kind of perverted catalog from which to select the next young girls he would molest,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said after the ruling. “He hid in plain sight and was a trusted coach who believed he could trust his young victims not to speak out about the abuse they suffered. Pedophiles will never stop unless law enforcement stops them. This belief ensures these young women have the right to speak out against the sexual abuse they suffered as children.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact National Sexual Assault Hotline Phone: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
