Chester couple accused of sexually abusing, holding captive mentally disabled women in federal indictment
Michael and Nicole Swanson, along with two other defendants, were charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and a host of related crimes this month for the abuse that ended in 2023.
Federal prosecutors have accused a Chester couple with trapping two intellectually disabled Delaware County women in a double-wide trailer far from home, where they were sexually abused and regularly beaten.
That abuse, prosecutors said after the couple was arrested in 2024, was the culmination of a monthslong nightmare that ended that year and in which Michael Swanson and his former wife, Nicole, groomed and manipulated the women in Chester and then in Tallahassee, Florida, where the couple attempted to hide from a Delaware County Child and Youth Services caseworker in the trailer.
Along with Swanson’s new girlfriend and a man who owned their house on Broomall Street in Chester, the couple conspired to defraud the women of their social security benefits and food-assistance cards, stealing thousands of dollars in public benefits after convincing the women to move from their family homes into the squalid property.
Despite ample evidence gathered by prosecutors, charges against Nicole Swanson were dismissed that year, and last month, a Delaware County judge ruled that Michael Swanson was mentally unfit to stand trial.
Now the cases will be tried in federal court.
Prosecutors with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania this month charged Michael and Nicole Swanson, Caitlyn Eusden Swanson, and David Dziobcynski with a host of federal crimes for their part in the abuse.
Their arguments were identical to those made by Delaware County attorneys.
They said the defendants, led by Michael Swanson, “groomed, lured, and enticed intellectually disabled women” to live with them, according to an Oct. 8 grand jury indictment.
Michael Swanson, prosecutors said, engaged in sex with the women despite their lacking the capacity to consent. And Nicole Swanson “encouraged the victims to join sexual relationships” with her ex-husband, the document said, and “sometimes engaged in the sex with them herself.”
As a result of Swanson’s criminal behavior, one of the victims gave birth to his child in February 2023.
Meanwhile, the Swansons, aided by Dziobcynski, isolated the women from their families and convinced them to submit new applications for government benefits — listing them as payees, the document said.
The group took EBT cards meant to help feed the disabled women and spent the funds on themselves, according to prosecutors, and they took control of bank accounts that held their social security benefits.
And when Delaware County caseworker for some of the Swansons’ children grew suspicious of the arrangement, prosecutors said, the defendants schemed to evade scrutiny.
In July 2023, Swanson wired more than $20,000 from one victims’ account to his own. He rented a passenger van, taking the women to the Florida trailer where Nicole Swanson had fled with their children.
Dziobcynski, prosecutors said, had already harassed the CYS caseworker for months, calling her phone more than 110 times and leaving multiple threatening voicemails.
And the physical and sexual abuse continued in Tallahassee, according to the document.
There, Nicole Swanson told one of the women to engage in sex with Michael Swanson, recording the interaction on her cell phone, prosecutors said.
And Michael Swanson threatened the women, warning them against telling authorities or social workers about their situation. In one instance, Swanson told one of the women he would cut off her hair should she do so, the document said.
In September, a Delaware County judge said Michael Swanson, 43, was incompetent to stand trial, the Delaware County Daily Times reported.
A defense attorney said the Swansons had a history of brain trauma and behavioral issues, and said Michael Swanson gave highly emotional, childlike responses during a psychological exam.
But prosecutors presented their own psychological expert who suggested Swanson’s behavior was more like a “caricature” of mental incapacitation, falling outside what would be expected of someone with a disability, the Daily Times reported.
Michael Swanson was released from custody in 2024 and placed on house arrest after paying $1 of a $900,000 nominal bail.
Court records did not make it immediately clear whether he or the other defendants had been arraigned in the federal case or whether they had hired attorneys.
