John Griffin is pictured here in a mugshot for an October 2020 DUI case. More than two years later, he was sentenced in an unrelated matter for sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl. (Mugshot: Vermont State Police)
A disgraced former producer for CNN must spend almost two decades in prison for sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl as part of a twisted “training” scheme.
John Griffin, 45, was sentenced on Tuesday to 19 years and seven months behind bars, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. He pleaded guilty on Dec. 12 to knowingly attempted to persuade, induce, entice and coerce a individual under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activity.
U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III blasted Griffin’s behavior as “outrageous” and said it deserved a severe penalty.
Federal prosecutors said that Griffin communicated online with the parents of minor daughters since 2019 because wanted to get them to let him — in the words of the DOJ press statement — “train their girls in sexual submission.”
In the summer of 2020, he paid for a woman and her 9-year-old daughter to fly to Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. From there, he picked them up and drove them to his house in Ludlow, Vermont.
“While in Vermont, Griffin engaged in what he considered to be sexual training of the child,” he said.
That involved sexually abusing the girl.
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As part of the sentence, Griffin must serve 15 years of supervised release after prison and must pay $1.1 million in restitution to the child. Another financial punishment is that he must forfeit the Tesla he used to drive her and her mother from Boston to Vermont.
“Leveraging his personal wealth, John Griffin targeted and sought to abuse vulnerable young girls,” U.S. Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest said. “The sentence he received reflects the seriousness of Griffin’s horrific crime. We are grateful for the tremendous investigatory work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the invaluable assistance of both the Ludlow, Vermont and Henderson, Nevada Police Departments. This office along with its partners will continue to prioritize protecting the vulnerable and prosecuting dangerous offenders such as Griffin.”
“Mr. Griffin preyed on a vulnerable woman and her child, using his wealth to lure them to his home to manipulate and sexually exploit them,” said Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “This sentence reinforces the message that the victimization of children will not be tolerated by law enforcement, and the FBI will continue to work with our partners at the United States Attorney’s Office to ensure justice is served to those who cause irreparable harm and trauma to these innocent young victims.”
The federal government did not name the girl’s mother, but reporting shows that Heather Carriker, 49, was arrested in August 2020 by the Henderson Police Department in Nevada. Clark County online records show a Feb. 2, 2022 guilty plea under that name to one count each of attempted lewdness with a child under the age of 14, attempted sexual assault, and child abuse by neglect or endangerment. She was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison.
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