An aggravated battery charge against Dwight L. Swafford was dismissed Friday afternoon in Lyon County District Court.
Lyon County Attorney Marc Goodman said that the charge was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be refiled later.
Swafford, 55, was charged July 11 with attempted second-degree murder in the shooting of 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, Denise Calvert.
William Calvert was injured seriously in the shooting.
The original charge against Swafford was dismissed in December, and he was charged that month with aggravated battery.
Goodman said that after multiple conversations recently with Swafford’s attorney, Frederick L. Meier II, attorneys agreed that Swafford would give a statement about the incident to an Emporia police detective. Swafford previously had not made a statement in the case.
“Certainly, it’s not a condemnation of Mr. Swafford, but he had originally never made a statement,” Goodman said. “He had elected to assert his right to remain silent and, of course, we’d honored that.”
Goodman said there had been a number of questions remaining about the case.
“...(R)ather than just go into the arena of a full trial court, we agreed to this statement being given to the detectives,” he said.
“After reviewing that statement and after talking with the detective, and in combination with the statements made by the son and the mother, we decided that evidence was inconclusive as to either theory of the case, and that the best interests of justice were served that it just be dismissed with prejudice. We will not refile it. ...”
“There was no way to determine even the slightest probability that one theory was more accurate than the other.”
The shooting in June reportedly evolved from an argument between Swafford and William Calvert began earlier in the day.
At Swafford’s preliminary hearing in September, William Calvert testified that he had confronted Swafford at home the afternoon of the shooting to talk about how their relationship had deteriorated over the past several years. Calvert left the residence and returned later that evening.
In the interim, William Calvert and his mother had a confrontation after he stopped at a tavern before the shooting incident.
William Calvert testified that he started drinking at a local restaurant about noon, and also stopped at a bar and later at the tavern.
“My mother confronted me in the (tavern) and hit me and screamed at me and told me Dwight was leaving her and it was all my fault,” he testified under cross-examination.
He said his mother took a Python .357 pistol from him, drove him to an apartment building where a relative lived and dropped him off in the parking lot.
Calvert testified that he remembered striking his mother and saying that he was “going to go kick Dwight’s ass.”
He said he had been building up resentment for Swafford for some time and that he did not approve of the way Swafford behaved toward him and his mother.
Detective Dennis Delmott testified that Denise Calvert told him her son had come to the house later that evening and kicked and pounded on the door, demanding entry. Delmott said she told him she let William Calvert into the house and he went to the dining room and living room area where the confrontation allegedly began. William Calvert followed Swafford into a bedroom, where he and Swafford began slapping each other.
William Calvert testified that the front door was open when he arrived, and that he found Swafford and his mother in the bedroom.
“I remember entering the residence with the intention of starting a fight,” William Calvert testified at the preliminary hearing.
He said that he saw Swafford with a revolver in his hand, with his elbow bent and pointing it toward the ceiling.
“I was trying to pick a fight basically,” William Calvert testified. “I told him, ‘You’re not going to shoot me.’ I didn’t believe he really had the guts to shoot me. I was hoping that it might turn into a fistfight. That’s what I was there for.”
During a tussle for the gun between Calvert and Swafford, Denise Calvert, who suffers from a debilitating disease, was pushed or fell to the floor. Denise Calvert was between her son and Swafford.
The gun discharged into the bed and “it really sobered me up and I didn’t want to play any more,” William Calvert said. “I walked out. ... I turned around and walked out.”
Calvert testified under cross-examination that he remembered being surprised when he “felt heat on my back and I felt a bullet go through me.”
Swafford has been free on bond. Bond conditions were modified at the preliminary hearing in August to allow him to have contact with Denise Calvert.
At that time, Meier presented the court a letter from Denise Calvert, in which she asked that a no-contact provision be removed. Meier said the couple had a long-term relationship and Swafford helped her with her chronic health problem.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
I'm glad they dropped the charges. If this had gone forward to trial, people may have been afraid to defend themselves in their own homes for fear of being charged with a crime. Who knows what really happened that night. Sounds like they have at least 2 (if not 3) different versions of the event. And at least one witness admits he'd been drinking. What a mess!
March 21, 2009 at 10:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hottopics (anonymous) says...
What a mess is right. I think Dwight is very lucky that it didn't end his freedom and the rest of his life in a cell needed for a real criminal.
March 22, 2009 at 12:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Happiness09 (anonymous) says...
Thank God. Maybe there is a little justice in Emporia. This man should never have been charged with anything in the first place.
March 22, 2009 at 6:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )