School of Music, Theatre & Dance professor David Daniels and his husband, William Scott Walters, were released on bond this weekend after a Washtenaw County Circuit Court judge ruled in their favor at an emergency hearing on Friday. The Washtenaw County Jail inmate information system had no records of any inmates by either of their names as of Sunday afternoon.
Daniels and Williams were arrested for sexual assault on Jan. 29, and were held in Ann Arbor while awaiting extradition to Texas, where Samuel Schultz, a baritone from New York, alleged the pair drugged and raped him in Houston in 2010.
Matt Hennessy, the criminal attorney representing Daniels and Walters, told MLive he anticipated the two would post the $15,000 bond and then head to Houston for a court appearance scheduled for Monday morning. If convicted, Daniels and Walters could face anywhere between two years and two decades in prison.
Daniels, an opera singer who faces numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, has been on leave from the University since August. In October, Andrew Lipian, a Music, Theatre & Dance graduate student who accused Daniels of drugging him and assaulting him, filed suit in federal court against Daniels and the University, which Lipian alleged was aware of the claims against the professor and ignored them. Daniels denied the accusations, and in December, he filed a countersuit against Lipian.
On Jan. 17, attorney Deborah Gordon, who represents several former students who say Daniels assaulted them during his tenure at the University, dropped one of the accusations against the singer. However, she said the decision was not significant to the case. On Thursday, Daniels filed a motion to dismiss the suit based on lack of jurisdiction.