HOUSTON — Renowned opera singer David Daniels and Jonathan Dale Bentonhis husband have pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting another singer in Houston.
Daniels, 57, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Scott Walters, 40, entered the pleas Friday after a jury was assembled for the trial of the pair on first-degree felony charges of aggravated sexual assault.
Both pleaded guilty to sexual assault of an adult, a second-degree felony, and were sentenced to eight years' probation and required to register as sex offenders.
Daniels, Walters and their attorney declined to comment following the hearing.
Daniels and Walters were charged in 2019 when Samuel Schultz filed a criminal complaint in 2018 alleging the two assaulted him in 2010 after he met them at a Houston Grand Opera reception while he was a graduate student at Rice University.
Schultz said he was invited to their apartment and given a drink that led him to slip in and out of consciousness. He awoke alone and naked.
The AP doesn't normally name victims of sexual assault, but Schultz offered to publicly identify himself to help others fearful of reporting an assault.
Daniels, a countertenor, was fired as a University of Michigan professor and was removed by the San Francisco Opera from a production of Handel's "Orlando" after sexual assault allegations by a student at the university in 2018.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Michigan, alleged Daniels groped the male student and sent and requested sexual photos. The lawsuit also alleged that Daniels served the student alcohol, gave him sleep medication and touched him sexually.
Anti-Flag:Punk rock group addresses sudden breakup, sexual assault allegations
More:Woman accuses Bill Cosby of drugging, sexually assaulting her in the '80s
2025-04-29 17:12425 view
2025-04-29 17:00168 view
2025-04-29 16:472317 view
2025-04-29 16:08712 view
2025-04-29 15:47375 view
2025-04-29 15:042495 view
After Luigi Mangionemade the difficult decision to undergo spinal surgery last year for chronic back
Abdullah O. Ismael, 20, was sentenced to 60 years to life for the April 2022 drive-by shooting death
ATLANTA (AP) — Six people, including a detention center officer in Georgia and several members of th