Supreme Court upholds Rapid City man's rape conviction

By Chet Brokaw, The Associated Press | Friday, July 04, 2008

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PIERRE -- A former church camp director's convictions for statutory rape and sexual contact with a minor were upheld Thursday by the South Dakota Supreme Court.

The high court ruled unanimously that sufficient evidence was presented to support a jury's decision to convict Isaac Swan of Rapid City.

Swan, 34, was convicted of 19 counts of statutory rape and one count of sexual contact with a minor for incidents that happened at the Thunderhead Episcopal Church Camp in Lawrence County. The convictions involved two girls who stayed with Swan at the camp when he was director in 2001-2003.

Circuit Judge Warren Johnson sentenced Swan to 30 years in prison.

The girls, who were in their early teens at the time, testified about Swan's actions.

But Swan argued that the evidence introduced in his trial was not sufficient to support his convictions. He also contended the dates used in the indictment against him do not match one alleged incident.

The Supreme Court said the evidence was sufficient to convict Swan.

One girl's testimony was not very specific with regard to times and location of assaults, but the high court said children who have gone through traumatic events cannot always remember precise dates and times.

"There is no suggestion here that Swan's defense depended on his being able to pin down the exact dates when the crimes charged against him occurred," Justice John K. Konenkamp wrote for the court. "Rather, the primary question in this trail was whether the jury believed the child at all. Was Swan regularly molesting her? The jury chose to believe the child. In the circumstances of this case, the evidence was sufficient."

Before Swan was convicted in the Lawrence County case, he was acquitted on related charges in Pennington County.