Aug. 5 (UPI) — World-renowned opera singer David Daniels and his husband have pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges stemming from a 2010 incident with a young singer.
Daniels, 57, acknowledged as one of the opera world’s best-known countertenors, and his husband Scott Walters both entered guilty pleas in a Harris County, Texas, courtroom on Friday, the same day their criminal trial was slated to begin, The Houston Chronicle reported.
The two men were both accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a young aspiring singer in Houston in 2010.
Samuel Schultz, the plaintiff, was a 23-year-old fan and aspiring singer when he met Daniels and Walters at a party following a concert at the Houston Grand Opera.
Prosecutors said Schultz was a graduate student at Rice University at the time and was invited back to the couple’s apartment where he was given a drugged cocktail causing him to black out. He was then sexually assaulted, they alleged.
Both Daniels and Walters initially denied the charges, pleading not guilty.
Daniels called the allegations “completely false” during a 2018 interview with the New York Daily News.
Friday’s guilty pleas to second degree felony charges mean both men must register as sex offenders for the remainder of their lives. They also both face eight years of probation and are barred from contacting Schultz.
“I am glad that the defendants have acknowledged by their guilty pleas the truth of my traumatic experience, and that this portion of my nightmarish ordeal has finally concluded,” Schultz told National Public Radio.
“We are deeply relieved that the perpetrators of this despicable crime are finally facing the consequences of their choices,” Schultz’s family said in a separate statement.
Daniels, a native of South Carolina, rose to fame by possessing rarest type of operatic voices — the countertenor.
Neither Daniels or Walters commented following the pleas.
Daniels in 2020 lost his tenured teaching job at the University of Michigan, NPR reported.
