A Baltimore suburb highschool athletic director allegedly used synthetic intelligence to impersonate his principal spouting racist and antisemitic hate as a part of a demented revenge scheme.
Dazhon Darien, 31, was arrested Thursday whereas attempting to hop on a aircraft to Houston.
“From the very starting, we’ve expressed our concern concerning the disturbing audio that shook our communities right here in Baltimore County. That’s as a result of these phrases go towards every little thing we stand for,” County Government Johnny Olszewski stated at a press convention.
“Hate has no place and no dwelling in Baltimore County. Nor ought to it have anyplace throughout our state or right here in our nation,”
The weird saga began in January, when disturbing audio of what seemed like Pikesville Excessive Faculty Principal Eric Eiswert slamming college students of coloration throughout a phony dialog with one of many college’s assistant principals made rounds on social media.
Within the clip, the mimicked voice of Eiswert stated African American college students had been unable to “take a look at their approach out of a paper bag” and that there have been two Jewish academics who “ought to by no means have been employed on the college,” in line with charging paperwork obtained by 2 WMAR.
As punishment, Eiswert was quickly faraway from the varsity — however he declared his innocence and instructed police he believed the audio clip was falsified utilizing AI.
He even pointed to Darien because the perpetrator, telling officers he was “technologically savvy.”
Much more damning, there have been conversations about not renewing Darien’s contract for the next semester following a number of work-related points since starting his position as athletic director in July 2023, together with firing a long-standing coach on the college with out approval and paying his roommate as an assistant coach regardless of not working for any groups.
“By way of their investigation, detectives alleged Mr. Darien who was the athletic director at the highschool made the recording to retaliate towards the principal who had launched an investigation into the potential mishandling of faculty funds,” Chief of Police Robert McCollough stated.
The FBI and an professional from the College of California, Berkley finally tied Darien to the simulated audio to an electronic mail account beneath the alias TJ Foust, which he allegedly used to ship the phony recording to his personal work electronic mail and different academics on the college.
Throughout an interview with detectives, Darien allegedly admitted to “having points” with Eiswert all through his quick tenure on the college.
He was arrested Friday at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport when authorities had been alerted to an improperly saved firearm in his bag, officers stated.
After they carried out a background test, they found the warrant out for his arrest that Baltimore County officers had filed the night time earlier than.
Whether or not he was attempting to flee to Texas or making an unrelated journey remains to be unknown, in line with investigators.
He was charged with a number of expenses together with theft, stalking, disruption of faculty operations and retaliation towards a witness. He was launched on a $5,000 unsecured bond.
Baltimore County Faculties have since put forth a suggestion for his employment termination, and is anticipated to convey again Principal Eiswert now that his identify has been cleared.
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