Update: A commentary by Matt Hennessy, the Houston-based attorney representing Daniels and Walters, was added to this story on the morning of January 30.
Professor at the University of Michigan David Daniels, a world-famous opera actor, and her husband Scott Walters were arrested in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, January 29, according to police.
The two face extradition to Texas, where they are accused of raping a 23-year-old singer.
Each is charged with sexual assault in the second degree and could face 2 to 20 years in prison if convicted under the Texas Penal Code.
The couple was investigated by the Houston Police Department after Samuel Schultz alleged in a story published by the New York Daily News on August 22 that Daniels and Walters had drugged and raped him after a Houston opera in 2010.
Schultz says that he woke up the next afternoon in a strange bed, disoriented, with pain and bleeding from the rectum.
"David and Scott are innocent of any crime," said Matt Hennessy, the Houston-based attorney representing the couple. "Sam Schultz is not a victim, he would never have received so much attention because of his singing, and he knows and is upset by that fact, he waited eight years to complain about adult and consensual sex to mount the MeToo movement to an unearned celebrity. .
Ann Arbor police arrested Daniels and Walters in the afternoon on Tuesday afternoon. Both are housed in the Washtenaw County Jail awaiting extradition to Texas, where they face judicial proceedings.
Daniels also gets his name in a federal civil suit filed by former University of Michigan student Andrew Lipian, who claims he was invited to Daniels' apartment to see "Drag Paul Race" in March 2017 and was sexually assaulted after receiving bourbon and being tricked into taking sleeping medication.
Daniels called Lipian's allegations "false and malicious" in a counterclaim filed in December.
The accusation of sexual misconduct against the opera professor of the U de M is d, another remains
The UM professor was also charged with sexual misconduct by another student in March 2018. The student Anonymous said that Daniels offered to pay for sex through Grindr, a telephone application designed to facilitate sexual encounters. The Pittsfield police investigated the matter, but found no evidence of criminal irregularities.
The UM Board of Regents voted in favor of giving Daniels, who entered the university in 2015, the mandate's approval in May 2018, less than two months after the anonymous tip.
The opera professor was the headline after accusations of sexual misconduct
University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen declined to comment on Daniels' arrest and confirmed that she is on paid leave.
"We have nothing more to share at this time," he said.
Daniels took a paid leave in August after the 2010 Houston rape allegations were made public.
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