The man accused of creating an AI recording to incriminate a Baltimore County high school principal and who is federally charged with sexually exploiting boys will remain jailed pending his trial in federal court, a judge ruled Thursday.

Dazhon Darien allegedly coerced at least five teenage boys to send him sexually explicit images. There were possibly additional victims, as investigators found “files depicting approximately 8 additional males engaged in similar conduct,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Goo and Paul Budlow wrote in court papers requesting he be kept in jail.

“The allegations are disturbing,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Aslan said, ordering Darien, 32, detained while he awaits trial. Aslan added that he presented “a very serious danger to the community.”

Federal agents arrested Darien Monday when he appeared in Baltimore County Circuit Court for a hearing in his state case, in which he is accused of using artificial intelligence technology to develop a fake recording of then-Pikesville High School principal Eric Eiswert making racist comments toward Black students and teachers, as well as Jewish people.

Darien was the athletic director at the high school when he allegedly made the recording.

In state court, Darien is charged with theft of $1,500 up to $25,000, disturbing school operations, retaliating against a witness, stalking and influencing or intimidating a juror. He was scheduled for a bench trial Tuesday, but a judge postponed the matter because of his federal charges.

Following his federal arrest, Darien has been held in the “quarantine unit” in the Chesapeake Detention Facility in Baltimore, where he has been “depressed” and “despondent,” his attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Courtney Francik, said in court Thursday.

Federal prosecutors cited his state charges in their request to keep him locked up pending trial, describing the incident at Pikesville High as “disturbing.”

“While working for the Baltimore County Public School System, first as a teacher, then as an athletic director, Darien sought out teenaged boys for his sexual gratification,” prosecutors wrote. “Darien used the Snapchat application to communicate with the victims and then caused them to create sexually explicit images and videos and send those to Darien. Darien saved the images and videos on his phone and iCloud account.”

They said he paid boys for images on several occasions and met with one for a sexual encounter at least once.

Goo said in court Friday that Darien “selected jobs that put him in direct contact with the victims he sought out: Teenage boys.”

But Francik noted that Darien has not been accused of exploiting any of his students. She argued for his release under the condition that he live with his mother in New York. His mother, Francik said, promised to keep her computer away from Darien and not to share passwords with him, conditions that would “cut off Mr. Darien from the internet.”

Aslan questioned whether Darien could be kept away from the technology he is allegedly proficient at using, stating that smartphones and tablets were of concern in addition to the mother’s computer.

“How can we say this man will not access the internet?” Aslan asked.

Darien, who lives in Houston, Texas, and his mother gave conflicting information to agents with the Probation and Pretrial Services Office preparing a report for the detention hearing, according to prosecutors. Darien told agents he was close with his mother, yet his mother didn’t know he had a son in California. They also gave differing accounts of where he lived.

According to Francik, Darien has no biological children but kept in close contact and sometimes cared for the son of a former romantic partner.

She said it was a simple mix-up attributable to the stress he was under, having been arrested on charges carrying “decades-long maximum penalties.”

Prosecutors saw it differently.

“He simply cannot be trusted in this case,” Goo argued.

Aslan found “significant discrepancies between the information he provided and the information provided by (his mother). And that is difficult to reconcile.”

Prosecutors say Darien continued to exploit one of his victims even after police searched his home in connection to the Baltimore County case, arguing he would continue to do so even if a judge placed limits on his access to electronics.

“There is a real danger to the community in the event of Darien’s release pending trial. Darien was able to locate minor victims and commit these crimes with the use of a cellphone and other electronic devices, which are all to (sic) easily accessible,” prosecutors said. “Even if the Court were to release Darien to a third-party custodian with restrictions on his use of electronic devices, he could easily access that person’s electronic devices.”

Aslan said she was concerned because the exploitation spanned months, if not years.

“This was not an isolated incident,” the judge said.

In state court Monday, Baltimore County Deputy State’s Attorney John Cox said authorities had been attempting to unlock Darien’s iPhone since confiscating it with a search warrant in March. But a machine could not unlock the passcode-protected phone until December.

Federal prosecutors said in their detention memorandum that authorities gained access on Nov. 27, finding 20 videos of child pornography.

“The evidence in this case is strong. Most of the case rests with digital information recovered from Darien’s phone and accounts that are tied directly to Darien,” federal prosecutors wrote. “There is no question that the victims were under the age of 18, and the age of the minor victims are captured in several chats.”

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