The man accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate a Baltimore County principal is set to stand trial next month. The legal drama, though, has already started.

Dazhon Darien is facing charges related to an audio clip that circulated last January on social media. Listeners across the country heard what sounded like the voice of Eric Eiswert, the principal of Pikesville High School at the time, making racist and antisemitic remarks about staff and students. Darien was the school’s athletic director at the time. Experts later called the recording an AI deepfake, and Baltimore County Police eventually arrested Darien.

Darien, 32, is charged in Baltimore County Circuit Court with disrupting school activities, stalking, retaliating against a witness and theft. His trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 28.

Police claim Darien made the recording in retaliation for Eiswert initiating an investigation into theft. Darien, investigators allege, authorized a more than $1,900 payment to his roommate under the pretense that the roommate was an assistant girls soccer coach.

Assistant Public Defender Jasmine Hope, Darien’s attorney, earlier this month served a subpoena on Baltimore County Public Schools for Eiswert’s personnel file.

Eiswert, she contends, is the state’s key witness in the case — and his statements are the main basis for the charges against her client.

Hope wrote in court documents that she has a duty to investigate and prepare a defense.

“The subpoena for these records is a part of that investigation,” Hope said. “His credibility is critical in this case and will be tried.”

Numerous people, she said, were involved in the release and spreading of the clip. But Darien is the only one facing charges, Hope said.

Hope also alleges an expert report “does not indicate that the voice in the recording is not human.”

The report only found that the audio had been altered, Hope asserts. She said “nothing outside of the witness’ denial proves the voice in the recording is not that of Mr. Eiswert.”

Hope said bias and motive are always relevant.

Instead of fighting the subpoena for the personnel records, the school system’s general counsel left that up to Eiswert’s attorneys, according to court documents. They’re asking a judge to enter an order preventing the file from being disclosed.

”Mr. Eiswert has suffered significant irreparable harm to his reputation as a result of the crimes committed against him,” his attorneys, Brian Cathell, Matthew Thompson and Nicholas Bonadio, wrote in court documents. “Not only does the subpoena at issue not satisfy the applicable legal criteria, it is a veiled attempt to further victimize Mr. Eiswert in the court of public opinion.”

The “fishing expedition,” Eiswert’s attorneys said, should not be allowed.

”Nothing in Mr. Eiswert’s file could be relevant to the crimes committed. Nothing in the personnel file could justify or mitigate the crimes committed against Mr. Eiswert,” they said. “He has not committed a crime and his behavior is not at issue in this criminal case. Mr. Eiswert’s only involvement in this case is that he was a victim of the defendant’s alleged crimes.”

His attorneys described him as a “hardworking public servant” and later called the subpoena an attempt to “harass, embarrass, and otherwise further retaliate against him.”

When the clip that police allege was made with AI hit the internet earlier this year, social media users and students at the school believed the principal made the comments, even though Eiswert denied it.

Billy Burke, head of the union that represents principals, said Eiswert needed police presence at his home since he and his family were being harassed. Eiswert is now principal of Sparrows Point Middle School in Edgemere.

A Baltimore Banner investigation revealed that Darien did not have the credentials required for the jobs he held at Baltimore County public schools, and that he had a history of making false claims on job applications and résumés, including what he submitted to the local school system. It included a document falsely claiming he had a California teaching license, college degrees he never earned and jobs he did not hold. Still, he was put in positions of power over teens and young adults, some of whom said that Darien treated them poorly.

He was also accused of submitting fraudulent documents for a Florida teaching job in 2016. Florida’s education department flagged that through a national database that warns school systems about issues with educators, but the Maryland State Department of Education did not check until after Darien’s arrest.

Baltimore County Public Schools didn’t have access to the database until this summer.

About the Education Hub

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