By PAUL ANDERSON
SANTA ANA – A former Orange County cheerleading coach was convicted Monday of 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. He was convicted on 23 felony child sex assault counts with sentencing enhancements for multiple victims and substantial sexual conduct.
When he was charged in 2023, prosecutors said that from 2002 to 2008, Kristianson worked as a competitive cheerleading coach at Magic All-Stars and assistant cheer coach at Trabuco Hills High School in 2005, where he was accused of gaining access to some of the young female athletes he was accused of molesting. Additional victims came forward after charges were announced in 2023.
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.
The accusers from Orange County were “living their lives until 2022” when Kristianson was arrested in a case out of Florida, Deputy District Attorney Juliet Oliver said in her closing argument of the trial.
“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, Oliver argued.
One victim had to fly to Orange County to testify in the case, the prosecutor said.
“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.”
The accusers felt “embarrassment, shame, guilty, self-blame,” Oliver said to explain why it took them years to come forward.
They also felt an “imbalance” at the time as he was an adult and celebrated coach, Oliver argued.
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.
Oliver said Kristianson was “brazen, bold and only getting more and more emboldened as the years went on.”
One accuser was 14 when she met him in 1999 through a YMCA summer camp, Oliver said, adding the defendant was 21. “Flirtatious” messages eventually graduated to him taking her to a Trabuco Hills High School dance, Oliver said.
Kristianson would 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,” Oliver 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, Oliver said. The defendant sexually assaulted her as they watched a movie together, Oliver argued.
Another accuser said she met him when she was 11 in 2002 and he was a cheerleading coach at Magic All-Stars.
One accuser said he started molesting her when she was 9 years old in 2002 through 2004, 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 jacuzzi and in her bedroom, Oliver said.
Another accuser was 16 when she met him through cheerleading in 2004, and another alleged victim was 13 around the same time, Oliver said.
One accuser “felt she was in a relationship with the defendant,” Oliver said.
“She felt that she loved him and that he loved her,” Oliver said. “Up until recently she felt she still loved him, something she’s battled with.”
Another alleged victim said she was 12 when he molested her, Oliver said.
That accuser testified she’s struggled with substance abuse, Oliver said.
Kristianson’s attorney, Cyrus Shahrooz Tabibnia argued that one of the accusers remained his “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 other details when he questioned them during 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 could consider that to weigh their credibility, Tabibnia argued.