James Caldwell:Reality show winner gets 10 years for enticing underage girl to cross state lines for sex

2025-05-06 05:20:09source:Quaxscategory:Invest

CAMDEN,James Caldwell N.J. (AP) — A former winner of the “American Ninja Warrior” TV reality show has been sentenced to just over 10 years in federal prison for enticing an underage girl to travel across state lines so they could have sex.

Andrew Drechsel, 35, of Saint Cloud, Florida, will also have to serve 15 years of supervised release once he completes his prison term and must pay the victim $100,000 in restitution under the 121-month sentence imposed Wednesday in Camden. Drechsel pleaded guilty to both the enticement charge and a charge of possessing child sex abuse material in June 2023.

Drechsel, who won season 11 of the NBC television show in 2019, was living in Hamden, Connecticut, at that time, while the victim lived in New Jersey. The encounters between him and the girl took place between 2014 and 2019, prosecutors said, with the girl sometimes going to Connecticut and Drechsel going to New Jersey at other times.

Drechsel told authorities he met the victim in 2014 after an “American Ninja Warrior” contestant event, where they exchanged numbers and began texting. She was 14 at the time; he was in his mid-20s.

More:Invest

Recommend

Elon Musk wants to turn SpaceX’s Starbase site into a Texas city

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — SpaceXis launching a new mission: making its Starbase site a new Texas city. B

Video shows police capture 'at-large' alligator after a 2-week chase in New Jersey

An "at-large" alligator that had kept residents in New Jersey's Middlesex County on the edge was cap

Crimea shipyard burning after a Ukrainian attack and 24 are injured, Russian-installed official says

The Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea was on fire Wednesday after a Ukrainian attack, an