A man affiliated with the Northshore Juniors Volleyball program has been charged with attempted rape of a child in the second degree and communication with a minor for immoral purposes, according to King County Superior Court documents.
Ronald Swafford, 59, is being held in King County Jail on $300,000 bail and will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 22 at the King County Courthouse, notes King County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Satterberg’s Web site.
At post time, Swafford was still listed as a coach for the program’s U-15 Black Team on its Volleyball.isport.com site, but he was fired following his Feb. 3 arrest. The club program for girls ages 14-18 was established in 1999. Contact for the team is through a Bothell mailing address, which is listed on its Volleyball.isport.com site.
A Mukilteo mother of one of Swafford’s former players said that club director Robyn Filimaua sent e-mails to all Northshore Juniors parents following his arrest and notified them that he had been fired.
“It’s horrendous that he did it,” said the mother, who preferred to speak anonymously. “I don’t want it to hurt Northshore (Juniors), because it’s a great club.”
Filimaua was not available for comment at post time.
After believing that he was communicating through a series of e-mails with a 13-year-old girl — who was actually a Seattle police detective conducting an undercover operation targeting people involved in the sexual exploitation of children — Swafford drove to a meeting location in Seattle and was arrested on Feb. 3.
He was read his Miranda Rights, said that “he knew he should not have come and that he made a big mistake,” charging papers say, and then halted the interview and invoked his right to an attorney.
Police found a box of condoms, a bottle of lubrication and a sex toy in Swafford’s possession.
The detective began the undercover operation on Jan. 31 by placing an online advertisement; Swafford, who said he was a girls volleyball coach, responded to the ad about two hours later, charging papers say. After Swafford sent a photo of himself with his volleyball team, the detective noticed that they were wearing Northshore Juniors jerseys and saw that he was head coach of the U-15 team via the club’s Web site. (According to a case investigation report, the detective was purposely vague on some of the tactics used in the sting because if the media leaks details it could hamper the operation.)
Swafford wrote in one e-mail that “he was very interested in teaching sex to the 13-year-old minor female child,” charging papers say.
Charging papers conclude that “although the defendant does not have a criminal history, his behavior in this case demonstrates that he is likely to commit another violent offense if released.”
