A divorced couple from Chester has been charged with multiple sexual offenses and mistreatment of two women with intellectual disabilities who were taken out of state after one of them had a child with the male defendant.
“It is hard to understand the awful actions of these defendants,” said District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer in a statement. “The defendants knowingly took advantage of two young women with intellectual disabilities. They used them for their sexual satisfaction and took their benefits. They tried to hide their actions by cutting off contact with the victims’ families and even took the women to Florida to avoid being found. Defendant Michael Swanson got one of the victims pregnant and brought a child into this terrible situation, adding to the seven other children he fathered.”
Michael and Nicole Swanson, aged 41 and 37, are both charged with raping a mentally disabled person, committing involuntary deviate sexual assault, carrying out aggravated indecent assault of a person with a mental disability, kidnapping to commit a felony, theft, and conspiracy.
The charges against Michael Swanson stem from his alleged treatment of both victims identified as “N.M.,” a 30-year-old woman, and “L.D.,” who is 27. Nicole Swanson’s charges only involve N.M.
Psychological assessments of the alleged victims found that N.M. has an I.Q. of 56, while L.D. has an I.Q. of 50. According to the statement, neither of them were capable of legally consenting to any sexual activity due to their intellectual capabilities, equivalent to those of a 7-year-old.
‘Relationships’ formed
Based on affidavits of probable cause written by Delaware County Detective Nicole Young, Upper Chichester Detective Michael Molineaux, and Chester Detective Patrick Flynn:
The three investigators, all part of the Child Abuse and Exploitation Task Force, met at the Upper Chichester Police Department on Jan. 3 to discuss the investigation involving N.M. after a family member contacted law enforcement.
They were informed that N.M. met Michael Swanson through her friend, L.D. The victims knew each other from a special education program at Chichester High School, and L.D. was pregnant with Swanson’s child at the time.
L.D. had met Michael Swanson on Facebook when she was 17 or 18 years old. Michael and his ex-wife, Nicole Swanson, visited her parent’s home and convinced her to be in a “relationship” with him. Eventually, she moved in with the couple at their home on the 200 block of Broomall Street in Chester.
L.D. also brought N.M. into the “relationship” at Michael Swanson’s request. Michael Swanson persuaded N.M. to move out of her father’s home and into the Broomall Street residence by telling her that her father was taking her Social Security benefits. The Swansons, their six children, L.D., and the homeowner, David Dziobczynski, all lived at the same address.
L.D. had Swanson's baby at Riddle Hospital in February 2023. Social services were notified because of L.D.'s disability and Michael Swanson's previous issues with social services, as stated in the release.
According to court records, Michael Swanson confessed to hiding the location of a child in January 2017. He was then given a maximum jail sentence of 23 months and two years of probation.
In February 2017, Nicole Swanson admitted to corrupting a minor and was also given a maximum jail sentence of 23 months with immediate parole.
Stollsteimer mentioned that the charges related to a 16-year-old runaway, but he didn't have the specific details of the corruption charges at the moment.
Went to Florida
After L.D. gave birth, Delaware County Children and Youth Services supervised her briefly, and paternity testing confirmed that Michael Swanson was the father.
In July 2023, Michael and Nicole Swanson relocated with their family, including N.M., L.D., the 5-month-old baby and another woman named Caitlyn Eusden, to a double-wide trailer in Tallahassee, Florida. A witness stated that the move was an attempt to evade further scrutiny by CYS.
Stollsteimer explained, “They left for Florida because CYS was watching them and a victim's family was trying to contact them. The sister of N.M. was trying to locate her sister and contacted the authorities, starting our part of the investigation.”
While in Florida, Nicole Swanson, her children, and Eusden recorded themselves assaulting N.M. in a video and sent it to N.M.'s family. A baby's crib is visible near the place of the assault in the video. Stollsteimer declined to speculate on the re