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 reason behind making or sending such a video.
N.M. was taken to a hospital in Florida, where her sister eventually found her and brought her back to Pennsylvania.
It is currently uncertain whether Eusden will face charges in Florida for the assault.
Abuse details revealed
After returning to Pennsylvania in January, N.M. provided information in interviews at the Child Advocacy Center, describing the sexual and other abuse inflicted by Michael and Nicole Swanson.
She reported being sexually assaulted around twice a day by Michael Swanson, and also mentioned that Dziobczynski, the owner of the Chester residence, claimed to have access to a camera feed from inside the bedroom where these assaults occurred.
There are no current charges against Dziobczynski, but the affidavit for Nicole Swanson requests a search warrant for the Chester address. A spokesperson for Stollsteimer stated that this part of the investigation is ongoing.
In June 2023, Michael Swanson took N.M.'s cellphone, food card, checks, money, and insurance card. He switched the payee on N.M.'s Social Security card to himself, using the Chester address. He promised to provide for her needs but never followed through.
L.D. also gave an interview in March at the Child Advocacy Center in Lancaster County, South Carolina, where she talked about Michael Swanson engaging in many sex acts with her at the Chester house.
The person who received her benefits was changed to Michael Swanson and she said he also recorded L.D. doing “sexual things” with him. Nicole Swanson was involved in making at least one of these videos without L.D.’s permission.
L.D. also said that Nicole made her do sexual acts with Michael when children were around, that Michael would take her phone as punishment, and that she was scared of Nicole because she “beat people with her fists.”
L.D. and her child have since been moved and now live with family in South Carolina. Stollsteimer said he was not sure where the couple’s other six children were, whether with family or in the foster system.
Both women were not allowed to contact friends and family or have any basic needs met while under the control of the defendants. N.M. also suffered hair loss from her abuse, as well as weight loss from starvation.
Waiting for hearings
More charges against the couple are expected to be filed in Florida and federal authorities are expected to pursue charges against Michael Swanson for stealing the victims’ Social Security benefits. Stollsteimer did not have an estimate of those benefits on Monday.
Michael Swanson was brought to Pennsylvania in March and had a preliminary arraignment before Magisterial District Judge Michael A. Burns, who set bail at $900,000 in the case involving victim N.M. Bail has not yet been set in the case involving L.D.
Nicole Swanson was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Wendy B. Roberts in February, who set bail at $1 million in the case involving N.M.
Both defendants have been sent to the county jail in Concord and are waiting for a preliminary hearing on May 2 before Magisterial District Judge Andrew Goldberg.
No defense attorney was named for Michael Swanson and the phone number for Nicole Swanson’s listed attorney was not working. Assistant District Attorney Bryan Barth is prosecuting.
Stollsteimer described the case as strange and perplexing, but said the rape charge alone can result in a punishment of more than 10 years in prison and that his office plans to prosecute the case to the fullest extent of the law.
“I want to thank the Upper Chichester Police Department and the Chester Police Department for their work on this case,” said Stollsteimer. “I also want to thank Detective Sgt. Steven Bannar and Detective Nicole Young of the Special Victims Unit of our Criminal Investigations Division, as well as the Deputy leading our Special Victims Unit, Kristen Kemp. Finally, special thanks are due to the staff at the Victim Assistance Center, the Child Advocacy Center of Delaware County, as well as their colleagues at the Child Advocacy Center in Lancaster County, South Carolina, for their professionalism and sensitivity in handling this difficult case. Working this type of case is heart-wrenching, and I deeply respect the men and women who work so tirelessly to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
