‘American Ninja Warrior’ winner arrested in St. Cloud, accused of sexually abusing teenager

She met Andrew Drechsel after an event attended by “numerous” contestants of the TV obstacle-course competition “American Ninja Warrior” in 2014. They exchanged numbers and began texting.

The following July, they made plans for her to visit his “Ninja Gym” in Hamden, Conn. -- as a present for her birthday -- and discussed the sexual activity they would engage in when they were together again, according to federal prosecutors.

At the time, he was 26. She was turning 15.

Drechsel, now 31 and a resident of St. Cloud, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he coaxed the teenager over several years into encounters in which he sexually abused her, among other allegations.

Last year, he won the TV competition and its $1 million prize. Drechsel reportedly was only the third person to complete all stages of the contest and had previously been “Last Ninja Standing” twice.

After his arrest by the U.S. Marshals Service office in Orlando, he was being held Wednesday in the Seminole County jail without bail, awaiting his transfer to New Jersey, where the case against him will be prosecuted.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the teenager did travel to Drechsel’s gym in 2015. Once there, and once his girlfriend had left the property around lunchtime, he sexually abused the girl in his office and other areas of the gym, authorities allege.

The girl told her mother about what had happened, which led to a confrontation in which the mother said Drechsel did not deny the abuse -- but claimed not to know her daughter’s age.

By that August, he again was texting the girl about sex and making plans to see her again, according to court records.

He arranged to meet her in New Jersey soon after and took her to the parking lot of a restaurant, where he again sexually abused her, prosecutor say. He’s accused of continuing to abuse her during later encounters outside a New Jersey gym until she was 17 years old.

Prosecutors say Drechsel made efforts to hide their encounters, both from his girlfriend and apparently from authorities, telling the girl to delete messages between them and communicate with him only via devices connected to WiFi, rather than through cellular networks.

“[W]e need a safe way to talk,” he said in a message via Instagram, according to charging documents. “Wi-Fi only. No service for texts.”

During the same period, he engaged in sexually explicit Skype sessions with the girl, according to authorities.

She came forward to report the abuse in June 2019, filing a complaint with police in Cherry Hill, N.J.,, records show. By then 19, she gave investigators access to cell phone records that helped build the case against Drechsel, according to court paperwork.

When agents raided Drechsel’s home in November, they confiscated his cell phone. On it were several sexually explicit images and a video of the victim dating back to when she was 14, authorities said.

Drechsel faces charges of manufacture of child pornography, enticement of a minor to travel for illicit sexual conduct, travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and use of interstate commerce to entice a minor. He faces the possibility of life in federal prison.

No attorney was listed for him on an online court docket.

jeweiner@orlandosentinel.com

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