School’s athletic director allegedly tried to frame the principal for a crime using an AI-generated voice

While a former athletic director was being investigated for alleged embezzlement of school funds, he allegedly used AI to create an audio in which the school principal makes racist remarks

Baltimore County police announced Thursday that a former high school athletic director was arrested on suspicion of using an AI-generated voice to accuse the school’s principal of making racist remarks.

At a press conference on Thursday, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCollough said that 31-year-old Dazhon Darien was arrested this morning while attempting to board a plane with a firearm.

After Darien was stopped by Maryland Transportation Authority officers, the agency soon discovered that there was a warrant out for his arrest and took him into custody.

The school’s former athletic director has been charged with disrupting school operations, theft, retaliation against a witness and stalking, McCollough said. The former Pikesville High School athletic director is being held on $5,000 bail.

Authorities allege that Darien programmed the voice of school principal Eric Eiswert to make anti-Semitic remarks in an audio clip that he later shared on social media. The Baltimore Banner first reported on Thursday morning.

“The audio clip … had a profound impact,” police charging documents say, the source said. “Not only did it result in Eiswert’s temporary suspension from school, but it also sparked a wave of hateful messages on social media and numerous calls to the school. The recording also caused significant disruption to PHS staff and students.”

McCollough said Thursday that investigators had found “conclusive evidence that the recording was not authentic” and two forensic experts had determined that the recording was created using artificial intelligence.

Darien is said to have used school computers to search for the AI ​​audio technology, McCollough added.

Investigators also said they linked Darien to an email linked to the social media account that originally shared the AI-generated audio clip, which led to Eiswert resigning as principal amid fierce backlash at the school and in the local community.

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McCollough told reporters that police believe Darien gave the fake audio recording to Eiswert “out of revenge.” Eiswert had launched an investigation into Darien earlier this year for allegedly embezzling school funds.

Accordingly The bannerDarien came under investigation after he made a payment of nearly $2,000 to the school’s junior basketball team coach, who is also his roommate.

Darien allegedly bypassed standard payroll procedures to authorize the payment issued to the coach because he also served as an assistant coach for the girls’ soccer team. However, the individual was reportedly not an assistant coach for the team.

WBAL-TV reported that the audio clip sparked strong backlash against Eiswert at the time, forcing him to resign from his duties as principal while the clip was investigated.

The school principal demanded the presence of the police at his house and received threatening messages after the fake audio recording spread on the Internet. The banner.

“The school administration has expressed that staff do not feel safe, which requires an increased police presence at the school to address safety concerns and fears,” police also said, according to the source.

Documents reviewed by PEOPLE show that Darien and Shaena Ravenell, an English teacher who allegedly helped distribute the fake audio recording among students at the school, submitted their resignations to the school board earlier this month.

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