‘Cheer’ Star Monica Aldama’s Son Charged With Child Pornography Charges

Cheer coach Monica Aldama’s son, Austin Aldama, has been arrested on charges of possessing child sex abuse images, according to court records obtained by TMZ. The 27-year-old, who appeared briefly in Netflix’s docuseries following his mother and the Navarro cheerleading team, was arrested in Texas and charged with 10 counts of possession with intent to promote child pornography, a third-degree felony, Navarro County court records from last week show.

In the indictment, filed on Jan. 17, Austin is accused of possessing several digital video files featuring children as young as 2 years old. Austin’s attorneys, Heather Barbieri and Kerri Donica, claim he is innocent in a statement to NBC News. “In response to the recent media scrutiny surrounding our client, Austin Aldama, we want to set the record straight. The attention drawn to this case, fueled solely by the celebrity status of his mother, is an egregious attempt to distort the truth,” they said in their statement. “Let us be absolutely clear – Austin is innocent. The charges against him lack legal merit, and we are confident that the facts, which will prove his innocence, will come to light during the legal proceedings.” 

The attorneys added, “We will remain committed to seeking justice for Austin, and we will not be swayed by the sensationalism surrounding this case.” Austin has been released on bond but must submit to random drug testing as well as voluntary searches of his cell phone and computer and is “prohibited from viewing pornographic images by any means including through the use of the internet.”

Cheer was previously rocked by a case involving child sexual abuse materials. One of the Netflix documentary series’ subjects, 24-year-old cheerleader Jerry Harris, was arrested in 2020 and accused of requesting sexually explicit photographs and videos from a 17-year-old as well as two other minor boys, attempting to entice one of the minors into sexual activity and receiving images from two of the boys. 

Harris was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in July 2022 after pleading guilty to a count of receipt of child pornography and a count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. At the time, Monica said on the Tamron Hall Show that she was shocked at Harris’ arrest, saying it “kind of took the breath out of me for a minute.”

She continued, “As a parent, I was heartbroken for those affected and, you know, it was definitely one of the major challenges that we faced, just keeping ourselves in a good state of mind, mentally to get through that.”