Warrant: Mother hospitalized during trip with ex-CNN producer

A Nevada woman was twice hospitalized during a weeklong visit to a former CNN producer’s Vermont ski home where they trained her adopted 9-year-old daughter to be “sexually submissive,” according to the mother’s arrest warrant.

The 48-year-old woman, whose name Hearst Connecticut Media Group is withholding to protect her daughter’s identity, has been charged in Nevada with two counts each of sexual assault of a minor under 14 and first-degree child abuse as well as three counts of lewdness with a minor under 14.

The woman was arrested in August 2020, about a month after she and her daughter made a cross-country trip to John Griffin’s ski home in Ludlow, Vt., arrest warrants stated. The woman, whose attorney could not be reached for comment, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday in Henderson, Nev.

The FBI arrested Griffin in New Haven last week, charging him with three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce to attempt to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity, the U.S. attorney’s office for the district of Vermont said.

The woman’s arrest warrant includes text messages describing her visit to Griffin’s home, references to sexually explicit photos the girl was forced to take of the woman, and interviews with the girl, her biological mother and her grandmother, who was assigned temporary custody of the child.

Griffin, 44, of Stamford, has been accused of trying to lure women and their daughters to his ski home to sexually “train” the underage girls, according to his indictment.

Griffin’s attorney, Joseph Martini, said he and his client will not be commenting on the case.

In a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media, CNN said Griffin was fired Monday from the network, where he had worked since 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. Griffin was once a producer for the Chris Cuomo show and was most recently a producer for senior political analyst John Avlon.

Investigators said Griffin paid more than $3,000 for the Nevada woman to fly with her daughter to Boston, where he picked them up and drove them to his Vermont house in July 2020, the indictment stated.

The investigation into Griffin began in August 2020 after the Nevada woman contacted local police about a custody dispute she was having with her daughter’s biological mother, according to her arrest warrant obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Police in Henderson, Nev., contacted the girl’s biological mother, who said she discovered a series of text messages the woman sent from her daughter’s phone to another man describing their trip to Vermont and how she engaged the child in sexual activity, the warrant stated. The girl’s biological mother said the woman used the girl’s phone to send text messages and log onto social media and email.

“Trip had some great moments and then me (in) the hospital twice,” the woman texted the man, according to the warrant.

The warrant states that it’s “unknown” why the woman was hospitalized.

In August 2020, the biological mother contacted Griffin, who said the woman was hospitalized in Boston and denied anything happened with the girl while he was alone with her, the warrant stated.

However, during the first three nights of the trip, the girl told police she was forced to engage in sexual activity with Griffin and her adoptive mother, the warrant stated.

“(The girl) stated that the remaining nights in Vermont, she did not want to participate in what (her adoptive mother) and John were doing, so she stayed in another room while they went to the basement,” the warrant said.

The girl also told police she was forced to watch as her adoptive mother have sex with at least three other men between March 2020 and the trip to Vermont in July of that year, the warrant stated.

Less than two weeks after the woman was charged in August 2020, federal investigators seized Griffin’s computers and other electronic devices, according to his indictment.

Federal authorities have not responded to questions about why it took more than a year for charges to be filed against Griffin. A spokesperson for the FBI Albany field office declined to comment Friday, citing the ongoing investigation.

Ludlow Police Chief Jeffrey Billings said Griffin is not facing state charges in Vermont and referred questions to federal authorities.

Griffin is also accused of trying to lure two other women and their daughters between April and June 2020 to his Vermont home, which he purchased for $1.8 million in February 2020.

Norwalk property records indicate the couple purchased a $3.6 million home in the Rowayton section of the city in 2017. At the time of his arrest, John Griffin was a Stamford resident, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. It’s not clear when he moved and his name does not appear on Stamford property records.