EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers are advised this story includes graphic witness testimony that is a vital part of the storytelling component to reflect as accurate an account as possible.
MOUNT VERNON – Nearly a full year after Paul Swanson sexually victimized an 88-year-old woman at Ohio Eastern Star Home, he will be sentenced for his crime.
That will cap one of Knox County’s highest-profile court cases in recent memory. It unfolded in unique fashion amid a pandemic and at an entirely new venue.
But what it boiled down to was something both attorneys agreed on during closing arguments Wednesday: Who would the jurors believe?
The 67-year-old Swanson, longtime Mount Vernon Nazarene volleyball coach who stepped down earlier this year, will be sentenced on Sept. 3 at 9 a.m. He is facing six to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. The incident took place on Sept. 21, 2019, at the Ohio Eastern Star Home.
Knox County Common Pleas Court judge Richard Wetzel granted the continuance of Swanson’s current bond, which will allow him to continue living at home, provided he stays off the premises of the Ohio Eastern Star Home and ceases contact with the victim.
Wetzel ordered a pre-sentencing investigation as well, which will inform the court’s decision come sentencing day.
A Knox County Common Pleas Court jury deliberated two hours before finding Swanson, of Mount Vernon, guilty of one count of gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony.
He was indicted by a Knox County grand jury on Oct. 7, 2019 and pleaded not guilty Oct. 24, 2019. Thus began a nine-month pre-trial process that was prolonged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week’s unusual trial was conducted in the Knox County Memorial Building, across the street from the courthouse, in order to ensure the safety of all participants. Jury selection was held in the theater, while the trial was held in the upstairs ballroom.
Jurors sat six feet apart at all times during the trial and were encouraged to wear masks whenever possible. It was Knox County’s first criminal trial in the Memorial Building, Wetzel told the jurors Tuesday, although grand jury hearings have been held in the ballroom since April.
Jurors heard testimony from eight witnesses over two days, including Swanson, who took the stand Wednesday morning. Swanson was represented by Columbus-based attorney Bryan Bowen, of Luftman, Heck & Associates, while Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville handled the state’s case.
In order to convict Swanson of gross sexual imposition, the state had to prove all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Three of the four elements were largely indisputable, and were widely testified to: that the crime took place within Knox County (Ohio Eastern Star Home is located in Mount Vernon); that Swanson was not married to the victim (she was an extended family member); and that the victim’s ability to resist or consent was substantially impaired because of a mental or physical condition, or because of advanced age, and that Swanson knew of this fact (Swanson and others testified to his long history of caretaking for the victim, who was diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s).
The fourth element, however, was up for debate. The state had to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Swanson’s actions could be characterized as “sexual contact,” which is defined as the touching of another person’s erogenous zone for sexual arousal or gratification. It had to prove that Swanson’s actions were sexual in nature, not merely circumstantial or coincidental.
In considering this fourth element, jurors were presented with two sides to the same story. They heard conflicting testimony from some of the cases’s key witnesses, including Swanson and the nurses who witnessed the crime through a video livestream that day.
Here’s a breakdown of how the prosecution and defense presented their respective cases through witness testimony:
The state’s case
The prosecution called five witnesses Tuesday. Three were Ohio Eastern Star Home nurses who witnessed the crime on Sept. 21. Two were law enforcement officials who worked the case, including Det. James DeChant of the Mount Vernon Police Department, who led the investigation and ultimately decided to charge Swanson with gross sexual imposition on Sept. 24.
All three nurses worked in the “neighborhood,” or nursing home unit, where the victim lived at the time of the crime. They all began at different places that afternoon, but ended up together, at the nurses station, staring at the video monitor that showed Swanson sexually victimizing the elderly woman they cared for.
One nurse came in early that day to help serve dinner to the nursing home residents. She was standing at the nurses station when she saw something unusual come across the video monitor from the victim’s room, which had been installed because she was at high risk of falling (due to her dementia, she sometimes forgot she could no longer walk without assistance, and would try to do so anyway). Multiple witnesses testified that Swanson bought the monitor, and that Ohio Eastern Star Home generally did not place them in private rooms.
All three nurses testified that the monitor produced a high-quality video stream that was broadcast to the nurses station. However, the video was only a livestream, not a recording, so it could not be recovered later. It also did not produce audio, witnesses testified, only video.
The first nurse testified Tuesday that she saw Swanson walk up to the victim with his pants down. He started rubbing his penis in front of her, the nurse testified, and then took the victim’s hand and made her do it. The nurse testified that Swanson was fully erect – a major point of contention in a case that hinged on whether or not the incident could be considered “sexual contact.”
As soon as the nurse saw this on the video monitor, she testified that she told the unit’s head nurse, who came over to look. The third nurse in the unit was summoned eventually as well.
“I thought, ‘The more witnesses, the better,’” the first nurse testified. She said she was “alarmed” to see this occur, and that she had never seen anything like this at Ohio Eastern Star Home.
The second nurse to see the video that day – the head nurse of the unit – testified that after the first nurse called her over, she immediately observed the victim in her wheelchair, facing the camera, with Swanson beside her. She, too, said Swanson was fully erect, and that he stroked himself before taking her hand to do the same.
She testified that seconds after seeing this, she ran down the hall to get help. She reached the facility’s director of nursing and told her to call the police. By the time she made it back to the nurses station, moments later, the second nurse testified that Swanson had pulled his pants up and had begun to wheel the victim out of the room. She remembered telling the other nurses to “keep an eye on (Swanson)” as he wheeled the elderly woman out to the courtyard.
MVPD Patrolman Austin Johnston arrived at the scene moments later, around 4:30 p.m., to gather witness statements and collect evidence. The head nurse later filed a separate statement in the nursing home’s internal record-keeping system, where she outlined what she saw that afternoon. Her account then, less than an hour after the incident occurred, was consistent with her testimony on the witness stand Tuesday.
The third nurse to take the witness stand this week testified that she had been called to the video screen by another nurse in the unit that day. When she arrived, she saw Swanson pulling his pants up, standing over the victim. She did not see whether or not Swanson had an erection, she testified, but she did say his pants were mid-thigh at the time.
All three nurses testified that their memory of Sept. 21 was accurate, although it was 10 months after the incident. The head nurse testified she even remembered the color and style of Swanson’s underwear that day.
DeChant and Johnston testified about their investigation of the incident. Both said that they did not interview the victim because they were informed by nurses that her short-term memory was hindered by dementia, and that her account would not be reliable.
DeChant testified that he met with Swanson and his attorney at the time, Jonathon Spaulding, the following Monday. McConville showed the jurors footage of the 15-minute interview that took place at the police department that day, where Swanson provided the detective with a statement detailing his account of the events.
It was consistent with the testimony Swanson provided Wednesday.
It also differed significantly from the statements the nurses provided to Johnston on Sept. 21.
At one point in the interview, after Swanson gave his side of the story, DeChant told the defendant that he planned to charge him that day with gross sexual imposition, citing the reliability of the nurses’ witness statements in comparison to his. DeChant’s immediate investigation also included several additional phone calls and visits to the nursing home, according to his testimony.
Swanson sat across from the detective that day, incredulous.
“This was not a sexual act,” he pleaded.
Swanson was ultimately arrested and taken to the Knox County Jail, where he spent the next three days before being released on his own recognizance.
Mount Vernon Nazarene University, which employed him for 35 years, placed him on administrative leave. The school had previously named its competition court after him, and inducted him into its athletic hall of fame.
Swanson eventually retired from MVNU in early 2020, and testified this week that he is currently unemployed.
Swanson’s side
Moments after jurors took their seats Wednesday morning, Swanson took the witness stand to fight for his future.
He began by detailing his long history as a coach and educator, and also talked about his relationship with his wife, which dates to 1972. Swanson and others testified to his involvement with his wife’s family, which spans more than four decades.
Swanson and his wife both took care of the victim in the case for years, he testified. They provided care for her and her husband as they aged, and eventually helped them move from New York to Mount Vernon, so they could keep a closer eye on them.
Swanson testified that, as the victim aged, he and his wife began visiting her on a daily basis. They moved her into Ohio Eastern Star Home in 2015, and routinely brought her groceries and other necessities. Swanson was occasionally tasked with helping her go to the bathroom in public places. He and his wife cared for her together and separately, Swanson testified, depending on the day.
On the afternoon of Sept. 21, 2019, Swanson coached MVNU during a home loss to Marian University. After the match, Swanson testified that his wife received texts and phone calls from her sister, Cindi Gronberg, about how the victim was experiencing serious dementia-caused paranoia that day.
Swanson and his wife had plans to meet another couple for dinner at 5:30 p.m. He testified that he dropped off his wife at home and went to the nursing home, so that she could rest and he could try to calm the victim down and ease her fears. He was in a bit of a hurry, he testified, because he knew he had to get home in time to get ready for dinner.
When Swanson arrived at Ohio Eastern Star Home that day, he testified that he saw the victim in the nursing home lobby, watching television. When he greeted her, Swanson said she told him to take her to her room so that she could talk to him in private.
Swanson wheeled her into her room and shut the door, because he said other residents would sometimes wander into rooms where doors weren’t shut. The nurses who testified during the trial confirmed this fact.
Swanson said he sat on the victim’s bed and listened to her concerns. The victim told Swanson what she told Gronberg earlier that day – that the people in the facility were trying to poison her. Swanson testified that, after reading about how to care for people with paranoia, he had learned to listen to the victim’s fears, acknowledge them, and reassure her that everything would be OK. Swanson testified that he did this on Sept. 21, and it had worked.
He then suggested that the two take a trip outside, to the courtyard, because Swanson said the victim typically found solace in the sunshine. When he got up from the bed to wheel her outside, however, Swanson testified that he noticed he had to use the restroom. So, he went into the restroom inside the victim’s room to urinate.
Swanson testified Wednesday that he had long suffered from prostate issues, even having to go through exploratory surgery on Sept. 8 because of cancer concerns. These issues forced him to pull his pants down to urinate, while leaning over the toilet, in order to fully empty his bladder. This is what he did on Sept. 21, he testified.
Because he was in a hurry to care for the victim and return home, he testified that he pulled his pants up quickly after urinating. When he stepped out of the bathroom, he realized that his pants were ill-fitting, so he pulled them down again to readjust. It was at this moment, he testified, that the victim turned around, reached out and grabbed his penis.
The victim told Swanson he was “dribbling,” he testified, meaning that he was dripping urine on the floor. She told him it was “coming from here,” meaning his penis. Multiple witnesses testified about the victim’s long history of obsessive cleanliness, particularly when it came to her floors.
Still, Swanson said he was “stunned” by the turn of events.
“I was shocked that she did that…” he testified. “What am I gonna do?”
Swanson said he asked her where he was dribbling, and that he tried to remain calm, so that she would do the same. He testified that he told her “she could let go,” and that he was not dribbling.
After she finally let go, Swanson said the victim scolded him for not being clean, and for dripping on her floor. When Swanson disputed this notion, he testified that she reached out and touched his penis again, to show him where it had come from.
After she pulled away the second time, Swanson testified that he wheeled her out to the courtyard, as he’d planned to do previously. He eventually received a call from his wife, saying the police were coming, and he talked with Johnston on the scene that day. He was eventually asked to leave the facility.
Swanson testified repeatedly that his interaction with the victim that day was not sexual in nature.
“There wasn’t anything sexual about it,” he testified. “This is someone who’s like my mother, who I cared for … I didn’t think of her sexually in any way, shape or form.”
Swanson testified that he did not have an erection that afternoon, nor did he experience any sense of sexual arousal. He said the incident did not last as long as one of the nurses said it did, and that he did not pleasure himself or use the victim’s hand to do so.
“It just happened so fast. I wasn’t paying attention to time at all,” he testified. “I was just thinking, ‘How can I get myself out of this?’ She was the one that was coming at me, not the other way around.”
The defense summoned two other witnesses in support of Swanson – a former player and MVNU assistant coach, as well as Gronberg herself, who came from Texas to testify.
Gronberg said Swanson was “like a brother to her,” and testified to his close relationship with her family. She testified to the victim’s obsession over cleanliness and her habit of “invading your personal space” if she felt a family member needed to be cleaned up.
Molly Alexander also took the stand Wednesday. Alexander first met Swanson in 2008 during a high school volleyball camp. She proceeded to play for Swanson at MVNU from 2011-2015 and joined his coaching staff shortly thereafter. When Swanson was placed on administrative leave last fall, she took over as the team’s head coach.
Alexander testified to Swanson’s character on and off the court. She said he had a “reputation for truthfulness” among students and colleagues at the university, and that he was held in high regard by all who knew him.
She said that when a player would make a mistake off the court, Swanson would typically tell them, “I don’t care about what happened. We’ll deal with it. Just tell me the truth.”
Deliberation, then a verdict
After witness testimony concluded Wednesday afternoon, each side gave its closing argument.
McConville touted the testimony of the three Ohio Eastern Star Home nurses, which he called “concise, clear and consistent.”
“Of the people who have knowledge of what was going on that day, you’ve heard from all three,” he told the jurors. “The testimony that was given by these witnesses was detailed, and it underscores the fact that this was, in fact, sexual contact.”
He asked the jury to weigh the testimony of the three nurses, all of whom saw parts of the incident on camera, versus that of Swanson.
“You’re either going to believe the testimony of the medical professionals by what they saw, or you’re going to believe Mr. Swanson’s account,” he said, “and your findings will come accordingly.”
All three nurses testified that they’d only had positive interactions with Swanson to that point, McConville said, and they had “no beef” with the man. Therefore, McConville said, “they had no reason to make this up.”
“Their interactions with him had been totally professional,” he said. “And they were shocked by what they saw, and they called in the police to investigate.”
Bowen, meanwhile, used his closing argument to outline three reasons why he believed the state’s case was “not persuasive or convincing.”
He noted the lack of physical evidence in the case – that law enforcement officials did not take pictures of the crime scene, and did not talk to the victim – and the only evidence heard in trial came from witness testimony.
Bowen attempted to poke holes in the testimony of the three nurses, which differed slightly from what they wrote in statements to the police on the afternoon of the crime.
The first nurse testified that the incident lasted “10 minutes,” which was widely disproven through testimony from other witnesses. Two of the nurses testified that they saw Swanson have an erection, but did not include that detail in their statements to police (the head nurse did include this detail in her internal incident statement later that afternoon, McConville added). The third nurse said she saw sexual touching in her statement to police, but said otherwise in her testimony.
“Are those important inconsistencies?” Bowen asked the jurors. “Those would seem to be important inconsistencies because they go to the heart of the question in this case, which is whether the contact between them was of a sexual nature, for sexual arousal or sexual gratification.
“Just because one person touches another person, that does not necessarily mean that touching is sexual, otherwise every parent who changes a diaper or caregiver who performs a bath would be committing a felony. Every time. The motivation matters. The motivation matters critically.”
Bowen touted Swanson’s credibility as a lifelong caregiver for the victim, and as a coach and educator who has been around women daily for 40-plus years. He questioned whether the state had cleared the legal threshold required for the jury to return a guilty verdict.
“What happened on Sept. 21 at the Eastern Star is that Paul Swanson’s most embarrassing and easily misinterpreted moment was broadcast on a baby monitor …” Bowen said.
“The state has to prove to you, beyond a reasonable doubt, each and every element of this offense. Have they proved to you beyond a reasonable doubt that on that day, he acted with the purpose of sexual arousal or sexual gratification? That evidence is simply not there.”
Because the state has the burden of proof in a criminal case, it also has the opportunity to offer the final words before jury deliberation. McConville closed Wednesday by asking the jurors a simple question: “Does this pass the smell test?”
“The state would submit to you that the explanation for Mr. Swanson’s behavior is long, convoluted, and does not pass the smell test,” McConville said, “for the very basic reason of, under what circumstances is it ever OK for one to expose oneself to (a family member), especially if you could avoid it?”
Bowen argued that because Swanson bought the monitor for the room, and because he knew where it was located, the idea that he would do such a thing in that location made no sense. If he knew the camera was there, why would he choose to sexually victimize his own family member in front of it?
McConville posited that Swanson likely didn’t consider the fact that he was on camera – a common error in today’s society.
“We live in a society where there are cameras everywhere. People know there are cameras and people forget about the presence of cameras. All you have to do is look on YouTube to find many examples of that,” McConville told the jury.
“Zoom meetings have become an institution during COVID-19, and there have been multiple reports of people on Zoom meetings standing up and, oh, they’re in their boxer shorts. People forget that they are on camera in our society.”
McConville added that Swanson, like the nurses, also exhibited inconsistencies in his statements. The defense stressed the importance of his prostate issues during the trial, but Swanson made no mention of them in his written statement to police two days after the incident.
McConville informed the jurors that trial testimony is given under oath, and that out-of-court statements are not held to such a standard.
The jury deliberated for two hours on Wednesday afternoon, then reached a unanimous conclusion: the contact that occurred on Sept. 21, 2019, was indeed sexual in nature. Swanson was guilty.
As a court staffer read the verdict on Wednesday, Swanson leaned forward and put his head in his hands. He shook his head repeatedly, seemingly in disbelief. He appeared to tear up as the jurors left the room.
