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Drew Drechsel, known as “The Real Life Ninja” on the show, was arrested Tuesday at his home in Saint Cloud, Florida. Drechsel is accused of manufacturing child pornography, enticing a minor to travel for sex and use of interstate commerce to entice a minor, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The alleged victim said she and Drechsel had sex multiple times around New Jersey, including in the parking lot of a restaurant and outside a gym in Hainesport, Burlington County, when she was between the ages of 15 of 17, the complaint says.
Drechsel's lawyer, Frank Riccio, wrote on Twitter that his client plans to enter a not guilty plea.
Drechsel, now 31 and a resident of Florida, is awaiting extradition to New Jersey after making his initial court appearance before a federal judge in Florida.
According to the federal complaint, Drechsel sought to have sex with an underage girl and traveled to New Jersey with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with the teenager.
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 before inducing her to take sexually explicit images of herself and sending them to Drechsel, prosecutors said.
The alleged victim came forward in June 2019, telling police that she and Drechsel had sex several times beginning in 2015 when she was 15 and he was 26, according to the complaint.
They first met and exchanged phone numbers in 2014 at an event attended by several “American Ninja Warrior” contestants, the complaint says. Drechsel won $1 million on the competition show.
For her 15th birthday, Drechsel allegedly invited the girl to his Hamden, Connecticut gym, where the two had sex after his girlfriend left the establishment, court documents says. The teen told her mother about it. When the mom confronted Drechsel, he didn’t deny sleeping with her child but claimed he didn’t know her age, the complaint says.
Drechsel repeatedly asked her to Skype him while naked and kept several pornographic photos and videos of her on an old cellphone, the complaint says.
“Mr. Drechsel is presumed innocent of the charges and that presumption will remain throughout the pendency of his case,” the TV star's lawyer, Riccio, said on Twitter.
The count of use of interstate commerce to entice carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. All of the counts also carry a maximum fine of $250,000 per count, authorities said.
This case was investigated by agents with the FBI South Jersey Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Driscoll in Philadelphia. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisa Shver of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.
If you know anyone who may have been victimized by the defendant, the FBI requests that you contact them at 1-800-CALL-FBI or report it at tips.fbi.gov.
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