Reigning American Ninja Warrior winner Drew Drechsel has been arrested for an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor, including the solicitation of sex and request for explicit images from an underage girl.
Drechsel, a three time winner of the NBC show, was arrested Tuesday at his home in Saint Cloud, Florida, near Orlando. He is accused of manufacturing child porn, enticing a minor to travel for sex and use of interstate commerce to entice a minor.
The alleged sexual interaction between the two began in 2015 when the complainant was 15 and Drechsel was 26.
According to documents, the two met while Drechsel was filming American Ninja Warrior and had from that point forward been in contact with each other.
According to a press release by the US Attorney’s Office in the state of New Jersey, the complainant stated Drechsel “sought to have sex with a minor girl and traveled to New Jersey with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with that minor.
He also enticed and coerced a minor to travel to Connecticut to engage in illicit sexual conduct and engaged in online sexual communications with a minor and induced her to manufacture sexually explicit images of herself and send them to Drechsel.”
According to the victim’s mother, Drechsel had never denied that the two had sexual relations when confronted, instead stating that he had not known the complainant was 15 years old at the time of their interaction.
If convicted, the man dubbed The Real Life Ninja faces a lengthy sentence.
“The count of use of interstate commerce to entice carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; the count of enticement to travel for illicit sexual conduct carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; the count of travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; and the count of manufacture of child pornography carries a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years in prison. All of the counts also carry a maximum fine of $250,000 per count,” the statement from the AG’s office read.
