Ex-CNN producer who lured Nevada girl for sex acts sentenced

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A former CNN television producer who had pleaded guilty to luring a 9-year-old girl from Nevada into illegal sexual acts was sentenced Tuesday to more than 19 years in prison and an additional 15 years of supervised release during a U.S. District Court hearing in Vermont.

John Griffin of Stamford, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in federal court in December to using interstate commerce to entice and coerce the girl to engage in sexual activity at his Vermont ski house.

As part of the plea deal, the government dropped two remaining counts of enticement of a minor against Griffin, then 45 year old.

Griffin had initially pleaded not guilty in 2021. He has been ordered to pay restitution to the victims.

According to the plea deal, Griffin met a woman on a website during the summer of 2020 and persuaded the woman to bring her daughter to his Ludlow, Vermont, ski home for sexual activity.

Griffin paid the woman and girl to fly from Nevada to Boston, picked them up and drove them to his Vermont home, where the girl said Griffin sexually assaulted her, court records say.

Henderson police and court records show that the woman who was accused of traveling with a child to Vermont is Heather Carriker, 48. Carriker was charged in Henderson Justice Court in August 2020 with child abuse, sexual assault against a child under 14, and lewdness with a minor.

Griffin was arrested on Dec. 10, 2021, a day after he was indicted by a grand jury. He worked for CNN for about eight years but was fired after he was arrested, according to the network.

He also cannot have contact with people under the age of 18, except in the presence of an adult who has been approved by a probation officer, and is prohibited from being in areas where children congregate, such as schools, playgrounds and theme parks, unless approved by the probation office beforehand.