Opera star, husband maintain innocence in sexual assault case
Couple appear in court over alleged attack on singer after 2010 performance
An opera star and his husband are maintaining their innocence after appearing in a Harris County criminal court Monday in the case of a Rice University student who recently alleged he was sexually assaulted in 2010.
Famous countertenor David Daniels, 52, and his husband, William Scott Walters, 36, are accused of drugging and assaulting singer Sam Schultz at their apartment in Midtown after a performance with the Houston Grand Opera.
“David and Scott are innocent,” the couple’s attorney, Matt Hennessy, said after a brief court appearance. “Sam Schultz is not a victim. He never would have gotten this much attention from his singing, and he knows and resents that fact. He waited eight years to complain about adult, consensual sex to ride the #MeToo movement to unearned celebrity.”
Daniels and Walters, a conductor, were arrested in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Jan. 29. Daniels is a music professor at the University of Michigan. Both men are free after posting bail of $15,000.
On Monday, state District Judge Hilary Unger set conditions of their release. The two have been issued a no-contact order barring them from contacting the alleged victim and limiting their travel to Harris County, as well as the Michigan county where they live and contiguous counties.
The accusations come amid the growing #MeToo movement and the nationwide reckoning over consensual relations and sexual assault.
The Houston charges are the second allegation of sexual assault brought against Daniels. The San Francisco Opera in November said it removed Daniels from a production after another allegation by a University of Michigan student, the Associated Press reported. The student said Daniels groped him and requested nude photos, according to a federal lawsuit. Daniels has denied the allegations and filed a counter suit.
The University of Michigan also investigated allegations that Daniels had used the app Grindr to solicit a male student for sex, the Chronicle previously reported.
Daniels has performed with the Houston Grand Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
The Chronicle doesn’t typically name victims of sexual assault; it is identifying Schultz, however, because he’s gone public with his allegations.