MOUNT VERNON — A retired Mount Vernon Nazarene University volleyball coach was found guilty of gross sexual imposition Wednesday after an hour and a half jury deliberation.
Paul Swanson
His attorney, Bryan Bowen, said Swanson would not comment on the verdict “at this time.”
The charge stems from Sept. 21, when Swanson held the hand of an 88-year-old woman at a Mount Vernon nursing home and rubbed it against his penis. The woman suffers from dementia, which impaired her ability to consent or resist the conduct. The sexual conduct was seen by at least two nursing home staff via a monitor linked to a camera in the woman’s room.
The woman is a member of Swanson’s extended family who Swanson and his wife help care for.
The verdict came on the second day of trial, during which Swanson took the stand to testify.
Swanson testified that the contact the nursing home staff saw was not sexual. He said it came about after he “accidentally exposed” himself to the woman while coming out of her bathroom. The contact that the nursing home staff saw was the woman taking hold of his penis after accusing him of dribbling urine on the floor, he said.
“I said where and then she shocked me, she grabbed me and said you’re dripping from here,” Swanson said. “I find myself in this very uncomfortable predicament — what do I do?”
Swanson testified that he told her he “hadn’t dripped you can let go of me.” The woman let go of him but “surprised me again” and grabbed his penis a second time, “presumably to see if I was dry,” he said.
Two of the nursing home staff testified on the first day of the trial that Swanson had an erection. One member of the staff said she saw Swanson holding the woman’s hand and rubbing it on his penis.
Swanson testified that he was at the nursing home to check on the woman, who has dementia. Swanson’s wife had earlier received a text from her sister, Cindi Gronberg, that the woman had called her in a panic, believing that the nursing home staff were trying to poison her.
Swanson and his wife were going to have dinner with friends in a few hours, and because they were pushed for time, they decided the wife would go home and he would check on the woman alone.
The woman was sitting in a wheelchair in a common area of the home when he got there, Swanson testified. He said he pushed her into her room to talk her down and closed the door.
After calming her down, Swanson said he felt an “urge to go to the bathroom.” He testified that he has issues with his prostate that cause him to “dribble” when urinating, and pulls down his pants and underwear while leaning over the toilet.
As he left the woman’s bathroom, Swanson said he pulled up his pants hurriedly without adjusting his underwear. He said he exposed himself as he pulled down his pants and underwear to readjust.
“She was the one coming at me, grabbed me, continuing to scold me” about dribbling on the floor, Swanson said.
When he was charged, MVNU placed Swanson on administrative leave. Swanson testified Wednesday that he retired from MVNU sometime after the incident.
Gronberg testified Wednesday that the woman had a penchant for cleanliness and was always invading people’s personal space, even touching them to remove a piece of lint from their clothing.
Common Pleas Judge Richard Wetzel scheduled sentencing for Sept. 3.
