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David Daniels waited too long to sue the university, U.S.
District Judge Sean Cox said.
Daniels, 58, was hired as a voice professor in 2015 and granted
tenure three years later in the School of Music, Theatre &
Dance. He was fired in 2020 after an investigation found that he
had solicited at least three students and shared a sexually
explicit video with one, officials said.
Separately, Daniels and and his husband, Scott Walters, pleaded
guilty in 2023 to sexual assault and were placed on probation in
Texas. A Rice University graduate student said the couple
drugged and sexually assaulted him years earlier after they met
at a Houston Grand Opera reception.
Daniels claimed that his rights were violated during the process
that led to his University of Michigan firing. The school denied
it and noted that he had been represented by a lawyer.
In a court filing, the university said waiting more than three
years to sue was “inexcusable neglect” by Daniels or a
“strategic decision.”
Daniels' attorney, Francyne Stacey, said the criminal case in
Texas presented “exceptional circumstances.”
Daniels also sued a student who had accused him of sexual
misconduct. Cox, a federal judge, dismissed those claims, too,
saying they were based on state law, not federal law.
Daniels has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera
of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera.
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