Eric Eiswert, the former principal of Pikesville High School, is suing the school system and the man accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate him and destroy his reputation.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, Eiswert alleges that Dazhon Darien, a former Pikesville High athletic director, used AI to create a recording of him making racist and antisemitic remarks that racked up millions of views on social media. Baltimore County Public Schools, the lawsuit asserts, let him in the door and refused to correct the record.

“Mr. Eiswert and his family continued to endure public humiliation and violent threats,” his attorneys, Brian Cathell, Matthew Thompson and Nicholas Bonadio, wrote in the complaint. “BCPS arbitrarily and, with deliberate indifference, punished Mr. Eiswert over allegations that were quickly proven false and continue to punish him to this day.”

Darien, the lawsuit contends, was never qualified to work in the school system. That’s because his resume contained a “myriad of lies and exaggerations” that were “easily discoverable and disqualifying upon basic vetting,” according to the complaint.

But because the school system had a “deliberately indifferent and negligent approach” to vetting new hires, the lawsuit claims, Darien was placed in a position of authority.

Eiswert’s union representatives asked forensic experts to analyze the audio. They told the school system the recording was, “at a minimum, substantially altered, compiled in a fraudulent and deceptive manner, and possibly entirely fabricated using AI tools,” the lawsuit asserts.

In spite of those findings, the school system removed Eiswert from his position and “refused to correct the record and act in accordance with the information they knew to be true” — allowing the “national destruction” of his reputation to continue.

The lawsuit contains counts including defamation and negligent hiring, retention and/or supervision.

Superintendent Myriam Rogers is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with Chief of Human Resources Homer McCall and Bobette Watts-Hitchcock, a paraeducator who previously spent 15 years as the school system’s investigations supervisor.

Rogers and McCall declined to comment through a school system spokesperson. Watts-Hitchcock could not be reached.

The lawsuit comes weeks before Darien, 32, is set to stand trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court on charges of disrupting school activities and related offenses. Jury selection is scheduled for Jan. 28.

Darien could not be reached for comment.

In an earlier statement, Assistant Public Defender Jasmine Hope, Darien’s attorney, said her client is not guilty of the charges.

“Artificial intelligence is a sensational topic, and the recording underlying this case received a lot of publicity,” Hope said. “However, the charges do not apply, and this is a sad attempt to criminalize conduct that is not criminal.”

In the criminal case, Eiswert had sought to block a subpoena for his personnel file, which his attorneys characterized as an attempt to “harass, embarrass, and otherwise further retaliate against him.” A judge allowed the subpoena to proceed.

A pattern of deception

When the recording was released, many in the public jumped to the conclusion that it was real, with some students speaking out about how they viewed the principal’s character.

Billy Burke, Eiswert’s union representative, said at the time that the principal and his family experienced harassment. Police, Burke said, had to be stationed at Eiswert’s home.

The school system suspended Eiswert and removed him as principal of Pikesville High, according to the lawsuit. He was later transferred to lead Sparrows Point Middle School and, the lawsuit states, had no say in the matter.

Months after the audio clip surfaced, police arrested Darien at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where he’d been stopped for carrying a gun. The allegations that he’d used AI to fake Eiswert’s voice made national news.

Darien started working in the school system in 2023 as a social studies teacher at Randallstown High School. He was promoted to athletic director at Pikesville High. But Darien lacked credentials that proved he was qualified for either job.

The lawsuit mentions a Baltimore Banner investigation that revealed there were at least 16 false claims in Darien’s application to Baltimore County Public Schools, which consisted of two resumes under two different names: Dazhon Darien and Darien Spaulding.

Rogers has blamed Darien’s hiring on loopholes in the hiring process and insisted protocols were properly followed.

Not long after Darien started at Pikesville High, Eiswert noticed that Darien “lacked competence in several areas,” the lawsuit alleges.

Eiswert reported the behavior. But the school system, the lawsuit asserts, “failed to act with any urgency” to address his concerns.

Because the school system did not take action, Eiswert told Darien his contract as athletic director for the 2024-25 academic year would not be renewed, according to the lawsuit.

Next, Darien searched for OpenAI tools on the school system’s computer network, the lawsuit claims. He used a “combination of surreptitiously obtained recordings” of Eiswert’s voice and AI, the complaint alleges, to create the recording.

On Jan. 16, 2024, Darien, the lawsuit asserts, emailed the recording to two teachers at Pikesville High, Shaena Ravenell and Zoe Waddell, who “published” the audio “directly to students and through other means.” They did not make any effort to authenticate the recording, according to the complaint.

Ravenell and Waddell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They’re also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Within 48 hours, Eiswert’s union representatives provided the school system with an expert analysis that the audio was not genuine, the lawsuit alleges. Meanwhile, Eiswert passed a polygraph test.

The school system, the lawsuit claims, did not conduct its own investigation. Rogers condemned the language in the recording, “thereby implying that it was genuine,” the lawsuit contends.

Assistant Principal Kathy Albert spoke to detectives, the lawsuit states, and “denied that she was present for any of the alleged comments as depicted in the audio recording.”

Yet the school system continued to punish Eiswert and refused to correct the record, the lawsuit alleges.

“All of this,” the lawsuit asserts, “enabled and encouraged the public destruction of Mr. Eiswert.”