OGDEN (AP) — Opera tenor David Nyman Gustafson has been arrested in an Internet sting in which he allegedly arranged a sexual rendezvous with an officer posing on the Internet as a 13-year-old girl.
The Utah Festival Opera — of which Gustafson was to perform in the role of the duke in Verdi's "Rigoletto" this summer — released a statement to the press Thursday that "we have agreed that it is mutually beneficial to separate our relationship for this season."
The Utah Festival Opera also stated it was unaware of the alleged conduct of Gustafson, 38.
Gustafson, who has been associated with the Logan-based Utah Festival Opera, was booked into the Weber County Jail Tuesday night on suspicion of second-degree felony enticing a minor over the Internet.
He was arrested by the Internet Crimes Against Children task force for northern Utah, task force commander Rod Layton said.
Gustafson had driven from Logan, where he was in rehearsal, to a rendezvous Tuesday night in Ogden that Layton said had been set up in a chat room with Davis County sheriff's deputy Tadd Low posing as the 13-year-old girl.