A Deep Dive Into the Pikesville, MD, Racist/Antisemitic Deepfake Audio

Pikesville, Maryland, is a diverse, 12.3 square mile suburban Baltimore community, population 33,524. It was surprising when:

[An audio] recording went viral in January [2024], provoking rage in suburban Baltimore. It seemed that Pikesville High School Principal Eric Eiswert had been caught making racist and antisemitic comments. Angry phone calls overwhelmed the front desk. Employees felt afraid. Security was tightened.

T. Lake, Pikesville High School’s principal was accused of offensive language on a recording. Authorities now say it was a deepfake | CNN (Apr. 26, 2024).

The reaction was swift:

Eiswert was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. He received various threats of violence. A police report said one person told him the “world would be a better place if you were on the other side of the dirt.”

Id.  However, the recording was a deepfake:

All along, Eiswert denied making the offensive remarks. He said that wasn’t his voice on the recording. He believed it was an AI deepfake. And on Thursday, law-enforcement authorities announced they believe he was right.

The recording was indeed a fake, according to the Baltimore County Police Department. And the man accused of making it — a school employee who had clashed with the principal — was arrested on charges that included disturbing the operation of a school.

Id.

BACKGROUND:

HOW THE DEEPFAKE WENT VIRAL

AND THE CONSEQUENCES

The CNN news article quotes a County police statement that describes a frayed relationship between the principal and the athletic director:

Last December at Pikesville High, about 10 miles northwest of Baltimore, Principal Eiswert was investigating a potential theft involving the high school’s athletic director, Dazhon Darien. An unauthorized payment for almost $2,000 had been made to Darien’s roommate, a basketball coach for the school, “under the pretense” that the roommate had also worked as an assistant girls’ soccer coach, a police report said.

But when the principal and a colleague looked into it, they found that the purported assistant coach had “never assisted during the soccer season.” Eiswert confronted Darien about the payment, the report said, and Darien said it was “a mistake.”

This was not the first confrontation between Eiswert and Darien. The report said Darien had previously fired a coach without approval, after which Eiswert asked other administrators to monitor Darien more closely. Eiswert had spoken to Darien about the non-renewal of his contract, the report said, due to “frequent work performance challenges.”

Id. The CNN article then describes how the deepfake audio clip went viral:

On January 16, a Gmail user known as TJFOUST9 sent an email to three teachers, including Darien, at their school email addresses. The subject line said, “Pikesville Principal — Disturbing Recording.” A sound file was attached. A man could be heard speaking. Among other disparaging comments, including one about two teachers and another about Jewish people, the man said Black students couldn’t “test their way out of a paper bag.”

The recording proliferated. A teacher who didn’t get along well with Eiswert admitted to sharing it with a student “who she knew would rapidly spread the message around various social media outlets and throughout the school,” the report said. The teacher also sent the recording to media outlets and the NAACP.

Id.  However, its authenticity was immediately questioned:

Billy Burke, the school administrators’ union rep, was among the officials who immediately doubted the authenticity of the recording.

“The audio seems to be a dialogue, yet no other voices can be heard and there is no ambient noise,” he said in a statement to CNN. “Schools and offices are busy, loud places, but none of that is evident in the audio. This was suspicious to me. The content of the audio seemed scripted in that the statements if released would defame the speaker, somehow protect those mentioned, and insult the community.”

Burke said he met with Eiswert and school administrators, and “I could hear in their voices and story that this tape was not real.”

Id. (emphasis added). Nevertheless, Principal Eiswert was suspended. However, an investigation began:

Investigators searched for the origins of the recording. Through a subpoena to Google, a detective found the IP address where the email address TJFOUST9 was created. The detective traced that IP address to a relative of Darien. The Gmail account had a recovery phone number. A detective traced that number to Dazhon Darien.

Investigators shared the audio file with two forensic experts, including an FBI contractor.

Id.

The evidence pointed to Darien.  Using their investigative skills, “(p)olice tied Darien to a Gmail account that was used to send out the recording to two teachers with the subject line, ‘Pikesville Principal — Disturbing Recording.’ The clip appeared on social media about 30 minutes later.” D. Segelbaum and K. Griffith, Ex-Pikesville principal speaks after Dazhon Darien’s plea in AI case – The Banner (Apr. 28, 2025).

Shortly thereafter, Darien was arrested “on charges of theft, stalking, retaliating against a witness, and disturbing the operation of a school.” CNN reports on a news conference that followed:

Near the end of the news conference, a reporter asked the superintendent why school officials waited three months to publicly vindicate the principal.

“We made it clear that we couldn’t attest to the veracity of the recording,” Rogers said. “We asked everyone not to rush to judgment, but our role and our responsibility is to the students and the community and the truth.”

The case suggests that the truth is not always what it seems, officials said — and that new technology can make it hard to separate fact and fiction.

“I hope we can find the lessons amid the damage that this has caused,” said Burke, the union representative. “I hope we learn people are innocent until proven guilty.”

Id.

THE RESULTING LITIGATION

It has been said that: “A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.”  Three lawsuits resulted.

The Criminal Case

First, of course, there were criminal charges. Case No. C-03-CR-24002152 (Balt. Co.).  Baltimore County reported:

When we were made aware of the recording, we immediately launched an investigation and solicited the help of the county executive, Baltimore County police, and additional external experts. Baltimore County police enlisted the services of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We collaborated with these partners because they have the resources and skill to determine the authenticity of the recording, and they have verified that Mr. Darien used artificial intelligence to create the audio recording.

Police: Purported recording of principal contained AI content

Initially, the prosecutors were Assistant States Attorneys John Cox and Bridget McCarthy. Apparently, the maximum sentence was six months.  B. Young, et al., Police: Purported recording of principal contained AI content (Apr. 25, 2024). The charges resulted in a plea deal and a four-month prison sentence. JT Moodee Lockman  D. Valera, Baltimore man accused of framing school principal with an AI-generated rant takes a plea deal – CBS Baltimore (Apr. 28, 2025).

Before Darien was sentenced, he and Eiswert were able to address the court about the ripple effects this case has had in their lives.

“My life was forever changed,” Eiswert said in a prepared statement. “I’m slowly rebuilding my career, but this experience will never leave me.”

Eiswert described how he was labeled as a racist and antisemite because of the audio. He and his family were harassed to the point that a patrol car was posted outside of their home.

Id.  The sentencing judge said that a “good section of the community” will always look at Eiswert in a different light “whether it’s deserved or not.”  D. Segelbaum and K. Griffith, Ex-Pikesville principal speaks after Dazhon Darien’s plea in AI case – The Banner (Apr. 28, 2025).  The judge added: “It is clear that he did not make that recording.” But, “[h]e will always have to take that with him.” Id.

Two Civil Lawsuits

Second, in January 2025, Nicholas C. Bonadio, Esq., and  Keilty Bonadio filed a civil action (C-03-CV-25-000053) against the school district and Darien.

One day, Eiswert said, he was a respected educator who had served students and their families in Baltimore County for 27 years. The next day, people viewed him as a “racist and antisemite who said vile things about students and teachers.”

Though people later learned the recording was fake, Eiswert said, he knew “my life would never be the same.”

“I am slowly rebuilding my professional career, and I’m beginning to heal,” Eiswert said on Monday in the Baltimore County Courts Building. “But this experience will never leave me.”

D. Segelbaum and K. Griffith, Ex-Pikesville principal speaks after Dazhon Darien’s plea in AI case – The Banner (Apr. 28, 2025).

It is reported that the civil suit settled.  D. Segelbaum and K. Griffith, Ex-Pikesville principal settles with BCPS after racist AI impersonation – The Banner (Oct. 31, 2025).  The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.  “Ex-Pikesville High principal impersonated in racist AI case settles lawsuit” – E-Discovery LLC (Nov. 1, 2025).

Third, Ms. Kathryn Albert, “[t]he former assistant principal at Pikesville High School, whose name was mentioned in a racist deepfake audio, is suing the person who created the audio and Baltimore County Public Schools.” A. Thompson, Former Pikesville assistant principal sues over racist deepfake audio recording – CBS Baltimore (Jun. 11, 2026).  “The lawsuit alleges that the Baltimore County Public Schools failed to correct the record despite proof that the recording was not real.”  Id. Civil No. C-03-CV-26-002472 was filed on June 1, 2026, and remains pending.

THE EXPERTS

Forensic experts proved that the recording was fake.  Dylan Segelbaum and Kristen Griffith, Ex-Pikesville principal speaks after Dazhon Darien’s plea in AI case – The Baltimore Banner (Apr. 28, 2025).

The Circuit Court for Baltimore County held a Daubert hearing on, among other things, whether the audio recording was admissible.  The beginning of that hearing was unusual:

But before a motions hearing could even start, deputies put Darien in handcuffs and turned him over to federal marshals on a federal arrest warrant, which led to the postponement of the state proceedings. However, Darien waived his appearance and gave his attorney permission to continue the [Daubert] hearing without him.

B. Simms, Dazhon Darien arrested by federal agents at court (WBAL Jan. 27, 2025).

The main[1] witness was Dr. Catalin Grigoras. He is an electrical engineer with a PhD in digital signal processing.  He teaches media forensics and forensic audio at the University of Colorado.  He has been in that field for 30 years. Dr. Grigoras provided his services pro bono.

He was asked to describe the process that he followed.  He made a forensic working copy, opened it, and analyzed the signal waveform.

Dr. Grigoras did so using a scientifically validated method.  He testified that “we analyze on a scientific way by using scientific validated method, the waveform, the power, any other statistics going up to speech analysis.”[2] He stated that he looks at the speech, background notice, and “any other inconsistency in the signal like sudden breaks or discontinuities that are unexplainable.

The expert described several national and international organizations that use this process as a best practice. He stated that they are generally accepted within the scientific community and peer reviewed.  Those standards were offered into evidence and Dr. Grigoras testified that he followed those practices.

Interestingly, Dr. Grigoras could not opine that the audio was made using artificial intelligence. His report stated: “The evidence audio signal contains no traces of synthesized voice left by AI tools….”  He testified that background noise was added later to cover up very small details that could be used to identify AI or the editing technique.  However, he continued: “Similar discontinuities and consecutive zero levels like in the evidence file can be found in synthesized voice recording created with AI tools….” He submitted the following in his report:

Interestingly, he found a truncated word:

However, while he could  not state that GenAI was the source of the audio, he opined that this recording was not the product of human speech directly from person.  For example, he said that the voice spoke 44 seconds without breathing. He stated that an adult respiratory rate is one breath every other 3 to 5 seconds.  The lack of breaths was not consistent with human speech. In his report, he concluded: “The audio signal of the evidence is inconsistent with an original recording or an original recording uploaded on X (former Twitter).” In short, he said that the recording could have been made either by AI, followed by human-assisted editing, or by human-assisted editing.

He pointed out—and you see below—that the background noise changed over a break, i.e., before and after a discontinuity.

He said that there were “discontinuities” that had to be caused either by a human being doing manual editing or by AI tools.  While he could not say which method was used, a manual human process would require vast amounts of source material and lots of time.  He said that it would be hard to generate by manual human editing an entire speech like this one.  That could support the hypothesis of creation by AI.

One defense argument was that the State did not know if the audio was created by AI or human assistance.  The Judge said that was an issue for the jury and did not really matter.

Dr. Grigoras opined that the recording he examined was inconsistent with an original recording. The expert report stated that it had “six major discontinuities” that could have been created by human assisted editing or by AI followed by human editing.

The court held that his report was admissible.

The original contact with the expert was by an FBI agent.  Interestingly, Dr. Grigoras did not have the original audio file and recommended that it be obtained. It was not. Instead, he was provided one or two links to an internet website on which the audio was posted. I found no challenge by the defense to authenticity or chain of custody.

The legal standard governing authentication of proffered exhibits that were possibly created by GenAI may be in flux. “Given the rapid advances in artificial intelligence (‘AI’) technology related to generated video, this is a time in which courts should be more stringent in considering foundation.” U.S. v. Belt, 2026 WL 2031098 (8^th Cir. Jul. 14, 2026)(Erickson, J., dissenting).

This blog was initially posted on  Electronic Discovery Reference Model and  JD Supra.

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[1] One dispute at the hearing concerned an expert,  police SGT Brendan Gill. Defense counsel, Jasmine Hope, Esq., argued that the expert had been designated too late. The court noted that the case had been postponed. The prosecution pointed to newly discovered evidence in a phone download as a justification. The court held that it would not address SGT Gill at this time and the hearing proceeded on other issues.

[2] The quotation is from an audio record without an official transcript.