SDSU choral director sues former students, claims defamation regarding alleged affair with student

The director of choral studies at San Diego State University has filed a lawsuit against two former music students who he claims defamed him in connection with an alleged affair with a student.

Patrick Walders has worked for the university since 2011 and continues to hold his job there, though he has been suspended with pay for more than a year as officials investigate a complaint stemming from an alleged sexual relationship with a female student.

Cory Marshall, a spokesman for the university, provided a statement this week confirming that Walders remained in his job but was not teaching or conducting. Marshall declined further comment because it is a personnel matter.

The lawsuit, filed April 2 in San Diego Superior Court, alleges defamation, public disclosure of private facts and other wrongdoing by former SDSU music students Michael Sakell and Jess Barrera. In the lawsuit, Walders contends the misinformation has harmed his reputation and cost him professional opportunities.

The allegations echo similar claims Walders made against Sakell, his former teaching assistant, last year. At that time, Walders unsuccessfully sought a court order to block Sakell from spreading allegedly false information about what Walders and a female student were doing when Sakell allegedly interrupted their private encounter during an SDSU-sponsored trip to Austria in February 2017.

In the lawsuit Walders filed last month, Walders accuses Sakell and Barrera of spreading allegedly false information to professional colleagues and potential employers in San Diego’s small choral community that was “clearly intended to harm [Walders] and his reputation, standing in the community and his economic relationships with employers and others.”

Sakell’s attorney, Nicholas J. Moore, provided a statement responding to the lawsuit on his client’s behalf.

“Truth is an absolute defense to a claim of defamation,” the statement said. “We are looking forward to Dr. Walders’ deposition where he will have to testify, under oath, about his relationships with students. We are confident that the evidence will show that any harm Dr. Walders has suffered is the direct result of his own inappropriate conduct.”

Barrera said by telephone on Thursday that some of the comments the lawsuit says he made about Walders were taken out of context and he is not to blame for the consequences of Walders’ choices.

“I think he’s done it to himself,” Barrera said. “I don’t think there’s much of a case against me.”

The lawsuit includes examples of the alleged defamation, such as emails Walders believes Sakell sent to people including the executive director at La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, where Walders is the choral director, and a professional contact Walders had at St. Andrews’ Episcopal Church.

The emails allegedly said Walders had been caught having sex with students, according to the lawsuit.

Diane Salisbury, executive director for the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, told the San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday that Walders was on administrative leave from his position as choral director until further notice.

Sakell also allegedly contacted students from James Madison University in Virginia, where Walders once taught, and falsely asserted in text messages that Walders’ “drugged, raped” and “impregnated” a student, and “forced her to have sex ‘for her degree,’” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges Sakell approached “two local reporters” in an attempt to reach a larger audience, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit did not name the reporters or their news organizations.

The lawsuit was filed after a March 30 article in the Union-Tribune about Walders’ paid suspension from teaching duties at SDSU, pending the outcome of the university’s investigation into an alleged sexual relationship with a female student.

Sakell declined the Union-Tribune’s request for an interview for the March 30 article. He referred questions for this article to his lawyer.

Walders’ lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to be determined according to proof in court.

Walders, 43, is paid $77,000 by the state university, according to a database kept by the group Transparent California.

Cook writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com