The Chilliwack man known for posing as rock star David Lee Roth from B.C. to Ontario was convicted on Aug. 2 of numerous counts involving sexual activity with an underage girl.
David Kuntz-Angel’s conviction on two counts of sexual interference, two counts of invitation to sexual touching, one count each of assault and uttering threats in BC Supreme Court was the culmination of a 20-day trial that included the victim, who can’t be named, testifying for eight days.
Kuntz-Angel dropped his head down in the prisoner’s box when Justice Neill Brown read his decision of guilt on the most serious charges in the case.
He faced 12 charges in total. Justice Brown acquitted him of sexual exploitation, sexual assault, assault causing bodily harm, and one count of procuring.
Brown suggested the Crown almost met the burden to convict on the procuring, which is a charge involving arranging illicit sex between two people, but the key evidence came from a witness who committed suicide before he was able to testify. All the court had to go on was the man’s statement to police, albeit a “reliable” one, Brown decided.
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| David Lee Roth (left) and the Chilliwack man who for years has impersonated him, David Kuntz-Angel (right). Kuntz-Angel was convicted on Aug. 2, 2019 of various counts connected to sex with an underage girl. (Twitter/Brantford Expositor) |
Going by David Kuntz-Angel in the court system, the 53-year-old has too many aliases to list, not least of which is David Lee Roth, the former lead singer of American rock band Van Halen.
A musician himself, his proclivity to pretend he is Roth is well-known in some circles in Chilliwack, but also dates back a decade in Ontario. It was then that an Ontario Provincial Police officer pulled Kuntz-Angel over for driving erratically.
He gave his name as David Lee Roth and said he was having an allergic reaction to peanuts.
Various news outlets, including the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s and the Hamilton Spectator reported on the odd story at the time, which culminated in Kuntz-Angel being seen in a Brantford bar partying and singing with women in hospital scrubs. The story got such broad attention that it spurred the real David Lee Roth to issue a statement that he was not in the area, and that he was not allergic to peanuts.
Kuntz-Angel’s history has even more bizarre twists in it. He once escaped a love triangle where one of two women he was dating killed the other. A 28-year-old woman was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity for killing a 21-year-old woman.
Back to the present in Chilliwack, Kuntz-Angel was accused of grooming the complainant from the age of eight to 19 when she complained to police.
During the trial the court heard of various instances where strangers witnessed Kuntz-Angel and the complainant in sexually suspicious circumstances. One witness called police as he witnessed the accused with the complainant interacting inappropriately in the Landing Leisure Centre pool when she was eight or nine years old.
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“It was almost as if I was watching a couple being intimate and close,” the witness said.
Then there was strangers who spotted Kuntz-Angel emerging from a green space with the girl after he had been stung by wasps or bees.
“I saw a gentleman come out of the bushes carrying a blanket and a young girl with him,” that witness testified. “She looked scared. She looked worried. It didn’t look right.”
Justice Brown took two full days Aug. 1 and 2 to read his decision. In the end, he said there was reasonable doubt regarding whether the sexual activity was consensual when the complainant was over the age of 16.
But regarding her testimony about the activity when she was a young girl, Brown found the complainant to be a reliable and credible witness, summoning the courage to testify.
In contrast, Brown found that Kuntz-Angel was at times “obsequious” and “condescending” to Crown and the court, occasionally asking Crown Sandra Di Curzio if he needed to speak slower so she could understand.
Similarly, Brown found Kuntz-Angel’s wife, who testified in his defence, to be quite intelligent but “disrespectful towards the prosecution, evasive and sarcastic.”
“I found the Crown has proven the essential elements of counts one to four beyond a reasonable doubt,” Brown said.
By the time of the decision Aug. 2, Kuntz-Angel had spent 540 days in custody, meaning he will be given credit for 810 days at sentencing. The charge of sexual interference comes with a minimum sentence of one year up to a maximum of 14 years in jail.
He is next due in court Sept. 10 to schedule a sentencing date.
@PeeJayAitchpaul.henderson@theprogress.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
