By Mike Donoghue
Correspondent
BURLINGTON, Vt. — A former CNN senior producer, arrested on federal charges for luring a Nevada mother and child to Vermont to have sex with him, boasted to investigators he is worth $35 million to $40 million, and he paid cash for his $1.8 million ski house in Ludlow, newly filed court records show.
John J. Griffin, 44, of Stamford, Connecticut, is expected in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Wednesday for his arraignment on a three-count federal indictment.
The Office of U.S. Attorney Nikolas “Kolo” Kerest filed a 17-page motion on Tuesday saying it will seek Griffin’s detention pending trial because he is a risk to flee and a danger to the community.
“He has dishonestly tried to talk his way out of being held accountable. He has tried to buy his way out of trouble. There is no set of conditions that can assure the Court of his continued appearance or address the danger he presents if released,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher wrote in the motion.
He said Griffin sent $4,000 to a relative of the 9-year-old victim in the sex case.
“This apparent pay-off of a potential witness is not only further evidence of wrong-doing, it is an independent reason for Griffin’s detention. Indeed, making payments to a potential witness in an apparent effort to buy their silence itself justifies Griffin’s pre-trial detention,” Drescher wrote.
The Rutland Herald and Times Argus reported last week that according to court records, Griffin offered money and a check to a driver asking her not to call Vermont State Police after he crashed into her car in Plymouth in October 2020. State Police were called and arrested Griffin on a charge of driving while under the influence, records show.
Griffin eventually pleaded guilty in Vermont Superior Court in White River Junction in April to a reduced charge of gross negligent operation and paid $3,647 in fines and court costs, records show. He maintained he never had a drink before the crash, but refused to submit to an alcohol breath test, police said.
The attempted pay off in the car crash is mentioned by Drescher in the detention motion. He said Griffin needs to be detained.
“He is a wealthy man who will be desperate to avoid facing justice. He has history of mental illness and substance abuse and has recently consumed intoxicants,” Drescher wrote.
A federal grand jury in Burlington named Griffin in a three-count indictment on Dec. 9 charging him with attempting to entice minors to cross state lines to engage in unlawful sexual activity, records show. The FBI arrested him the next day in New Haven, Connecticut, and he was later ordered removed to Vermont to face the indictment.
Griffin lured a Nevada mother and a daughter to fly to Logan Airport in Boston in July 2020, the indictment said. He drove his 2019 red Tesla from Ludlow to Boston and brought them back to his seasonal home worth almost $1.8 million, records show. The unlawful sexual activity allegedly happened at the home, the indictment said.
There were at least two other attempted luring cases in April and June 2020, the 10-page indictment said.
Griffin is facing at least a 10-year minimum mandatory prison sentence — and potentially life — if convicted, Drescher said. He said the weight of the evidence is “substantial.”
Griffin, who was hired by CNN in April 2013 and was listed as a senior producer, was suspended by the network after his arrest. Three days later CNN said it had learned enough and fired him. Griffin notes on his LinkedIn profile that he worked “shoulder-to-shoulder with lead anchor Chris Cuomo” on the morning show, “New Day.”
Griffin was more recently a producer for CNN senior political analyst John Avlon. Griffin previously worked at ABC News for eight years and did about three years each with Fox News Channel and CBS News, records show.
His retained defense lawyer, David V. Kirby, declined to comment Tuesday on his proposed response to the government’s detention motion.
Drescher said Kirby, a former U.S. attorney in Vermont is reportedly planning to roll out a possible release plan. The defense had attempted a preemptive strike in August — four months before Griffin’s arrest — by offering letters purporting to vouch for his character, records show. The letters came from four friends, the defendant’s wife and his father.
Now the government said the defense release plan appears to be going sour. Three of the friends and Griffin’s wife “have since communicated that they withdraw their letters of support,” Drescher said.
“One friend explained that he was ‘blatantly lied to’ about the nature of the investigation when he agreed to write on Griffin’s behalf,” the prosecutor wrote. Drescher believes Griffin used false pretenses to obtain the support letters.
He also noted that Griffin and his wife, the mother of his three children, apparently split. News accounts had indicated they had a $4.8 million family home in Norwalk, Connecticut, but the government noted that Griffin moved out in late 2020.
He also was listed as owning a 44-foot Chris Craft Commander 44 yacht in 2020 in Connecticut, court records show
The indictment seeks the forfeiture of the Ludlow seasonal home, the Tesla, a 2018 Mercedes Benz, various computers, phones, cameras and videos seized from the defendant on Sept. 2, 2020.
The Okemo Mountain slope-side home had been bought for $1,799,000 on Feb. 21, 2020, by Griff Skis LLC, Ludlow Town records show. John and Allyson Griffin, of Norwalk, Connecticut, control Griff Skis, state records show.
It still remains unclear why it took the FBI more than a year to arrest Griffin after conducting a court-ordered search of his Vermont home in September 2020.
Henderson, Nevada, police, who are part of the investigation, arrested the mother of the 9-year-old victim on Aug. 21, 2020, on two counts of child abuse, two counts of sexual assault with a minor child younger than 14, and three counts of lewdness with a child younger than of 14.
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