Former Baltimore County athletic official gets 20 years in prison for child sexual exploitation
The former athletic director at Baltimore County's Pikesville High School was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years after pleading guilty in August to a child sexual exploitation charge.
In addition to 20 years in federal prison, 34-year-old Dazhon Darien received 30 years of supervised release as part of his sentence.
Darien admitted to enticing children as young as 14 to submit sexually explicit videos. Prosecutors said he had inappropriate communications with at least five boys between the ages of 14 and 17.
In court, Darien wept and said he himself had experienced previous sexual and mental abuse. "I'm sorry," he told Judge James K. Bredar, insisting that he was "not a monster." The judge responded by saying the sentence needed to send a loud, clear message.
Previously, Darien was under investigation for using an artificial intelligence generated deepfake to create a racist and antisemitic recording to retaliate against his former principal.
Child exploitation case
While the deepfake investigation was underway, prosecutors and police seized Darien's phones and uncovered sexually explicit videos and conversations with boys as young as 14.
He told one victim who was a freshman in high school that he was a school principal, court documents show.
Prosecutors wrote in his plea agreement, "Darien exploited the minors while he was an administrator and a coach at a Maryland high school where he had regular access to minor boys. Darien continued to exploit minors following law enforcement's search of his residence in March 2024, and continued to exploit minors after he was charged with unrelated criminal conduct in state court."
Court records detailed explicit conversations with the children, several of whom Darien made plans to meet in person.
He paid one child victim $224 to create nine explicit videos he stored on his phone, according to the statement of facts he signed.
Several of the victims were from Baltimore City; one was from Brandywine, Maryland; one was from Houston; another victim was from Las Vegas. There are no indications any of the victims were his students in Baltimore County.
The deepfake scandal
Last year, Darien was sentenced to four months behind bars for disturbing school operations in connection with a racist and antisemitic recording mimicking the voice of his former principal Eric Eiswert, which prosecutors believe was an effort to destroy Eiswert's reputation.
Darien entered an Alford plea, where he maintained his innocence while admitting prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction.
"What he did was reprehensible, had a great impact on Pikesville High School and Mr. Eiswert himself," Baltimore County Deputy State's Attorney John Cox told WJZ in April 2025.
Cox also spoke about the AI recording, noting "the capabilities are frightening" to "create a public impression of something that is just absolutely not true."
Eiswert later settled a lawsuit against the school system alleging, among other things, Baltimore County Public Schools failed to vet Darien's qualifications before hiring him.