Detective Douglas Escobar was assigned a case in which the complainant had been sexually assaulted in 2010 by a famous opera singer. The case was near end of the 10-year statute of limitations, so time was of the essence.
The complainant was a young 23-year-old male who was aspiring to be an opera singer and had just finished Graduate School at Rice University. A friend of the complainant introduced him to suspect Daniels and his boyfriend at the time, suspect Walters, in May of 2010, where they went to a local lounge to socialize.
The complainant was told that suspect Daniels was a famous opera singer and would possibly be worth meeting to obtain insight on the career path he had chosen.
A few days later he received an email from his friend, telling him that suspect Daniels and suspect Walters wanted to invite him to a performance at the Houston Grand Opera. The complainant said that on May 14, 2010, he went to the performance and he was invited backstage and later was invited to a cast party at a place called Hogwash.
Both suspects approached him and they went into the men’s room where they asked him if he wanted to go back to their apartment. He stated that both suspects made it very clear that it was just the three of them and that they did not want to make the invitation public because they did not want anybody else to invite themselves.
The complainant said that he drove himself to the suspects’ apartment. When he arrived, the suspects made him a drink, but once he took a sip of the first glass, he began to feel that his judgement was impaired within two minutes.
The complainant said that when he walked back into the living room, he noticed that the television was turned on and a porn video was playing. The complainant indicated that when the suspects began to remove his clothing, he was not an active participant. The complainant said that he remembers both suspects violently removing his belt and walking him to the master bedroom, where he was placed on the bed. He noticed suspect Daniels lying next to him completely naked. The complainant said that the last thing he remembers was being sexually assaulted by suspect Daniels.
The complainant advised Detective Escobar said that if he were to make these accusations soon after the incident, he believed they would have fallen on deaf ears. He stated he did not want to risk all that he had worked very hard for being destroyed before his career even got started.
This statement provided to Detective Escobar began the long and arduous process to obtain as much information and collect as much evidence still out there from almost a decade prior. Detective Escobar was able to obtain recorded statements of the suspects that were provided to Detective Pillsbury with the University of Michigan Police Department. Both suspects advised that they did in fact invite the complainant over to their apartment and that there were sexual relations between them, Detective Escobar also observed that suspect Walters used the words “drinking, Ambien and sex” to describe the encounter.
Suspect Walters indicated that the complainant looked like he was “woozy” as his eyes were opening and closing during the sexual encounter. Suspect Walters stated, “We stopped because the complainant was a mess, I was a mess, and (suspect Daniels) was a mess.”
Detective Escobar had been advised that the complainant had also began to meet with a therapist because he was having extreme anxiety and trauma from the sexual assault.
On Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, Detective Escobar met with therapist and went over the notes from the numerous therapy sessions she had with the complainant in 2010. Based on his review of those notes, Escobar found the details that the complainant provided to his therapist during his treatment were consistent with the details that the complainant provided to him during this Houston Police Department investigation.
Detective Escobar filed charges on both suspects for Sexual Assault. They were taken into custody in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Detective Escobar should be commended for his hard work in ascertaining exactly what occurred and filing felony charges against two suspects for an incident that occurred almost a decade prior