One year after his arrest in Baltimore, Md., Dazhon Darien has accepted a plea deal to spend four months in jail. Darien is the former athletic director of Pikesville High School, and he was arrested last year for creating an AI deepfake of the high school principal, Eric Eiswert.
According to ABC News, the video includes Principal Eiswert’s “voice expressing frustration with Black students and their test-taking abilities.” Authorities also reportedly found a version of the video disparaging Jewish students. The deepfake circulated around the school before Darien was arrested.
Just weeks before the video was created, Darien had been informed that his contract would not be renewed for his position as athletic director at Pikesville High School. Principal Eiswert cited poor job performance and allegations that Darien mishandled school funds.
This week, Darien entered an Alford plea, which means, “he acknowledged the evidence against him without directly admitting guilt.”
Throughout the investigation, Darien was also charged with additional crimes as authorities found evidence of sexual exploitation of children on his personal devices. The federal case for those allegations has yet to begin. While his sentence for the deepfake incident is relatively short, ABC News reported that his time behind bars will likely be much longer due to the federal case.
Related: Former HS AD Arrested for Using AI to Frame Principal May Have Faked Resume, Transcripts
Principal Eiswert has also filed a lawsuit of his own against the school district that he and Darien both worked for. Eiswert’s lawsuit accuses the school district of failing to properly vet application materials or conduct background checks on the athletic director. Following the incident, Eiswert left Pikesville High School and now works in a different Baltimore school district.
