Country music singer Daniel Lee Martin faces child sex abuse charges in Pasco

UPDATE: Daniel Lee Martin was found dead of an apparent suicide, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.

NEW PORT RICHEY — Country music singer and reality television star Daniel Lee Martin, 54, was arrested in January on charges that he performed lewd acts in the presence of a young girl, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.

Martin faces charges of lewd and lascivious exhibition and prohibition of certain acts in connection with obscenity. The name and age of the victim in this case was withheld by the Sheriff’s Office.

The incident took place on Nov. 1, according to an arrest report. Martin exposed himself to the child while they sat together on a couch, the report said, while the child was spending the night at his home at 7432 Little Road.

He was also accused of performing a lewd act in the presence of the child and showing pornographic images to the child depicting sexual acts, the report said.

The girl told her mother what happened, and she contacted the Sheriff’s Office. The child gave consistent statements to several investigators, the report said.

Martin was arrested on Jan. 27 and freed from the Pasco County jail the next day after posting $15,000 bail, according to court records.

He was arrested in 2018 on similar charges in Williamson County, Tenn. A grand jury there indicted Martin in September 2018 on three counts of soliciting the sexual exploitation of a minor, three counts of aggravated sexual battery, three counts of soliciting to commit aggravated sexual battery, two counts of indecent exposure and solicitation to commit the rape of a child, according to the Tennessean.

Martin was accused of assaulting three children under the age of 13 from May 2014 through January 2018, the Tennessean reported. He turned himself on Oct. 10, 2018.

His trial was scheduled for March.

Martin, who is oft-cited online as a former baseball player, professional golfer and advertising executive, abandoned his athletic pursuits in 1997 to take up a career in country music.

According to several online biographies, he toured with Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels and Vince Gill and was later signed to a record label. Martin released his debut album, All That I Am, in 2003. More recently, Martin has appeared on television in Brotherhood Outdoors, a show on the Sportsman Channel.

In 2016, Martin was joined by his wife in the CarbonTV show Til Death Do Us Part. Court records show that the Martin filed for divorce in Pasco County in August 2018 before he was indicted in Tennessee.