Image Credit: Knox County Sheriff’s Office
The Tennessee Conservative Staff-
A former University of Tennessee cheerleader and Knoxville area cheer coach pleaded guilty last week to statutory rape, along with other sex crimes.
Dominick “Nick” Frizzell was initially charged with nine counts of solicitation of a minor, nine counts of especially aggravated exploitation of a minor, and one count of statutory rape in May 2023 after it was discovered that he shared sexually explicit messages with several teenage boys via social media.
Frizzell accepted a plea deal in which he agreed to plead guilty to five felony charges: three counts of sexual activity involving a minor, solicitation of a minor involving especially aggravated exploitation of a minor, and one count of statutory rape.
He was sentenced to a 10-year sentence with split confinement. This means he will serve just one year in the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility before serving the remaining nine years with unsupervised probation. He must also register as a sex offender.
Frizzell had already been in a U.S. District Court in Memphis, accused of sexually abusing teens at Premier Athletics over a period of several years. A settlement was reached in that case, and the lawsuit was dismissed on January 21.
Frizzell was eventually fired from his job with Premier. He was also dismissed from the UT cheer squad, which he was a member of at the time the abuse was discovered.
