Sarah Bahari | The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

DALLAS — The former coach of Netflix’s hit docuseries “Cheer” is accusing a former cheerleader and a national cheerleading organization of operating a smear campaign to destroy her career.

In a 112-page lawsuit filed this week in Navarro County, Monica Aldama said a former student at Navarro College, USA Cheer and “unnamed co-conspirators” intentionally targeted her for personal and professional destruction. As a result, the lawsuit argued, she lost millions of dollars in potential revenue and was labeled a “pariah in the court of public opinion.”

Aldama is seeking more than $5 million in damages.

The lawsuit comes one year after the former Navarro student accused Aldama and Navarro administrators of discouraging her from reporting a sexual assault. In a federal lawsuit, she said she was sexually assaulted by a male cheerleader in her dorm room during her first semester in September 2021.

The Dallas Morning News does not typically name survivors of alleged sexual assault.

The woman said in her lawsuit that Aldama promised she would help advance her career if she kept quiet about the assault. Aldama sharply denied the allegations in a recent Texas Monthly story.

Following the student’s lawsuit, USA Cheer suspended Aldama last year and restricted her participation in cheer clinics and off-campus cheer activities, including the national cheerleading competition in Florida.

In May 2023, a few weeks after the lawsuit was filed, Aldama was dismissed as a defendant. But it took several more months, until November 2023, for USA Cheer to lift its suspension. USA Cheer suspended Aldama without a hearing, proper investigation or ability to appeal, according to the lawsuit, which called the suspension a “life-altering sentence.”

Russell Prince, Aldama’s attorney, said Wednesday allegations in the former student’s lawsuit are “demonstrably and objectively false,” and said it is “shameful” the lawsuit was filed in the first place.

Jud Waltman, an attorney for the former student, said via email Wednesday he has not seen the new lawsuit and had no comment.

Lauri Harris, executive director of USA Cheer, said in a Wednesday email she was unaware of the lawsuit and could not comment.

“What I can say is USA Cheer takes our responsibility to protect athletes seriously, we respond to reports of misconduct with thorough and independent investigations, and we aim to adjudicate those matters as fairly and quickly as possible,” Harris’ email read.

“Cheer,” a Netflix sensation that debuted in 2020, followed the elite cheerleading team of Texas’ Navarro College, about 50 miles southeast of Dallas. The show captivated audiences with the team’s personal stories, acrobatics and journey to the national championship.

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Under Aldama, who retired in fall 2023, the college became a cheerleading powerhouse. Navarro captured 17 National Cheerleaders Association junior college national titles and six Grand National championships, which pits junior colleges against other schools, including NCAA Division I programs. Navarro became the first junior college to win a Grand National title.

But the show and program were beset by controversies.

Breakout star Jerry Harris was arrested in September 2020 and accused of soliciting nude photos and videos from a 13-year-old Fort Worth boy. Harris was eventually charged with seven counts related to child sexual abuse and pornography. He pleaded guilty to two of the charges and is now serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison.

A Dallas County grand jury in 2021 declined to indict another “Cheer” cast member, cheerleader Mitchell Ryan, on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Coach and choreographer Robert Joseph Scianna Jr. also pleaded guilty to child sex abuse charges in Virginia that same year.

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