Baltimore, Maryland: Ex-Pikesville Athletic Director Dazhon Darien Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison

A federal judge in Baltimore on Tuesday sentenced Dazhon Darien, the former Pikesville High School athletic director who first drew national attention for an artificial intelligence deepfake of his principal, to 20 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting children.

U.S. Senior District Judge James Bredar also ordered Darien, 34, now of Houston, to spend 30 years on supervised release after the prison term. His release conditions include computer monitoring software on his devices.

Darien pleaded guilty in August in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to one count of sexual exploitation of a child. He faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Budlow sought a sentence of 21 years. Darien's attorney, Julie Reamy, asked for no more than 17 years.

What prosecutors said

Prosecutors alleged that between 2023 and 2024, Darien sexually exploited at least five boys who were 14 to 17 years old. He asked teens to send him explicit photos and videos on Snapchat and sometimes paid them, prosecutors said. Law enforcement said child sexual abuse material was also found on his cellphones and online accounts.

Budlow said investigators found evidence that Darien had been in contact with at least eight children. "He didn't just do it once or twice," Budlow said. "This was a pattern of exploitation." Budlow said Darien did not victimize any students at Pikesville High School, but that he saw firsthand how teens are vulnerable and took advantage of them.

Darien apologized in court and vowed to give back to the community when he is released. "I will never take for granted the opportunity to be free and heal," he said. "God willing, I will make it through this."

Bredar said he had no doubt that Darien suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse as a child and grappled with depression and substance use disorder. But the judge said Darien "still continues to lack a real insight about the nature of the offenses he committed, and the harms that flow from them." Bredar added: "It is important to protect children from this type of injury. There is, in this case, the need to substantially incapacitate the defendant."

Reamy said Darien experienced a childhood marked by instability and abuse, suffered from depression, and turned to alcohol and prescription medication to cope. "Mr. Darien has pleaded guilty," Reamy said. "He has accepted responsibility for his conduct."

The deepfake case that came first

Darien received national notoriety in 2024 after he used AI to create deepfake audio that made it seem like Eric Eiswert, then the principal of Pikesville High School, had made racist and antisemitic remarks. The clip spread rapidly online, and many community members who believed it was authentic flooded the school's front desk with angry phone calls.

More than three months later, Baltimore County Police arrested Darien. While he was awaiting trial in that case, the FBI took him into custody after investigators uncovered evidence of additional crimes. Darien then entered an Alford plea in Baltimore County Circuit Court to disturbing school operations and was sentenced to four months in jail. An Alford plea acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to obtain a conviction.

Eiswert is now principal of Sparrows Point Middle School in Edgemere.

The August guilty plea was announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland with the FBI Baltimore Field Office and the Baltimore County Police Department, as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Justice Department initiative.