Dwight L. Swafford was charged with aggravated battery on Monday in Lyon County District Court.
A charge of intentional attempted second-degree murder had been dismissed Monday morning, when the case against Swafford was scheduled to go to trial.
Swafford has been accused of shooting and wounding his companion’s 29-year-old son, William M. Calvert, during an altercation in June at the home of Swafford and the victim’s mother.
Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman called Swafford’s attorney, Frederick Meier II, on Sunday to tell him about the planned dismissal of the original charge.
“I told him Sunday I was re-filing it,” Goodman said this morning. “It was refiled as an aggravated battery.
“We could have asked to amend the charge Monday morning, but we decided in the best interest of the county to just dismiss and refile, rather than incur all the expense of bringing in all those jurors.”
The aggravated battery charge filed is a Level 4 felony.
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goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
I really wish our justice system would be responsible for the fees incurred in this kind of malarkey. It's ridiculous he is being charged and the other party is not to begin with, and now he just racks up more legal bills due to the ineptness of our County Attorney.
December 16, 2008 at 7 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dml (anonymous) says...
Maybe it is time for us to petition for the County Attorney to be impeached? Wonder how he would like to be charged with attempted murder or aggravated battery for protecting his life and home?
December 16, 2008 at 9:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alfalfa (anonymous) says...
I just can't imagine being in Mr Swafford's shoes. Evidently his choices were to either get beat up by the intruder, or get beat up by the Lyon County legal system. I thought you had a right to defend yourself in your own home? Seems to me that the benefit of the doubt needs to go to Swafford, he was minding his own business in his own home. If Calvert had not gone there intent on causing trouble, he would not have gotten shot. I guess I don't care what the details are, what I know to be fact is Calvert said he went there to start a fight, I guess he is lucky he didn't get killed. If anyone should be charged, he should be.
December 16, 2008 at 9:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alfalfa (anonymous) says...
On the other hand, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I don't live in Lyon county, but own land in it. Not long ago, I was having trouble with a neighbors bull, he couldn't contain him, and the bull was vicious. It kept getting in with some of my cows that were calving, I needed to check the cows, and the bull was after me while I was doing it. I called to talk to the Lyon county Sheriff, I was not allowed to talk to either he or the Undersheriff. Asked the dispatcher if I could talk to anyone who could answer the question about the bull, and was referred to animal control. In my experience, they can't handle a dog, so I called the Lyon county attorney office, again I couldn't talk to anyone but a secretary. I asked if I could shoot the bull if it was going to do me harm, and was told very clearly if I did that I would be charged with some crime, it didn't matter if I was in danger, or that it was on my property. Again I was told to call animal control, and when I asked what if they don't do anything I was given a name of a deputy to call. I asked sarcastically if that deputy was the head of the Renegade bull division of the Lyon county Sheriffs department and was told with equal sarcasm that Lyon county did not have a renegade bull division, but this deputy lived in the country and "knew about these things". Made me proud to pay taxes in Lyon county.
A call to the Sheriff of my own county had much different results. I talked directly to the Sheriff, he said if the bull was in the county I live in, I would be well within my rights to shoot him if he presented a danger to me(and he was on my property). If you can't shoot a bull on your own property in Lyon county in self defense, it stands to reason you couldn't shoot someone in your house. Funny how different counties handle the same issue differently.
December 16, 2008 at 10:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Happiness08 (anonymous) says...
alfalfa: Thanks for all the laughs......I do totally believe you though. Like you said "our animal control can't handle a dog". That has been my experience with them too.
December 17, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
Yes we in Lyon county definitely have our priorities out of whack. Especially in Emporia(cough..cough..smoking ban..cough).
December 17, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )