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Exclusive | Verdict in on Tri-Cities judge's domestic violence assault charges

Tri-City Herald - 8/11/2022

Aug. 11—A Franklin County District Court jury found a Tri-Cities judge not guilty of assaulting his former wife.

Superior Court Judge Sam Swanberg was on trial this week for two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree assault with a domestic violence allegations.

"I am thankful this nightmare is finally over," Swanberg read from a statement after the verdict. "After a jury of my peers in Franklin County saw clearly I was not the abusive monster the government, the media and social media portrayed me to be. I thank God to live in a free country with a right to trial by jury."

He was accused of pushing his now ex-wife, Stephanie Barnard, down hard enough to leave a bruise in February 2021, and then dragging her out of a room by her legs during an argument the following day.

The allegations of abuse came out in January 2022 when Barnard filed a declaration in support of his ex-girlfriend's request for a no-contact order claiming Swanberg was harassing her. Barnard said in court documents she believed his pattern of abuse was continuing.

This week, through moments of tears, Barnard told a jury Swanberg used intimidation, condescension and occasional violence against her.

At the time of the confrontations, Barnard and Swanberg were staying in separate bedrooms in the same house as they worked through their divorce. They'd been married 33 years and have six children.

When the Franklin County Sheriff's Office learned about the declaration, they began investigating Barnard's claims.

They issued the citation days after learning about the attacks.

Jurors listened to two days of testimony, mostly from Swanberg and Barnard before reaching the verdict Thursday morning.

The four-man and two-woman jury found he acted in self defense and the state of Washington will have to repay him his attorney fees and lost wages.

Courtroom duties

Swanberg is one of seven Superior Court judges and three court commissioners who handle civil and felony criminal cases, divorces, paternity and custody issues in the two counties.

Swanberg had not been handling court cases in Benton and Franklin counties since January while the case was pending.

Pending the outcome of his legal troubles, the other judges voted to remove him from his courtroom duties.

Jurors weren't told that Swanberg is a sitting judge because it might influence their opinion of him.

His attorney Scott Johnson said Thursday, "I'm relieved for Sam. It was a difficult trial. This is one where I don't know that there's, you know, a winner necessarily. Anytime a marriage fails, it's a sad thing. But these charges never should have been brought. So we felt vindicated."

Swanberg testified that Barnard lashed out at him, his car and a mirror in a series of confrontation and he didn't feel like he had any other option but to react how he did.

'Half truths'

Johnson said Barnard suffered a series of emotional, violent meltdowns brought on by the ending of their marriage. He told jurors that Swanberg had a reasonable fear that she would hurt him or destroy his property.

He argued that a lackluster investigation by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office didn't pay attention to other witnesses or the larger context of the couple's floundering relationship.

"What you have in this case is a series of half truths and accusations by an ex-spouse without any corroboration other than someone saying it happened with no proper police investigation leading directly to domestic violence charges," Johnson argued.

Johnson told jurors the prosecution's case was "like a script from a bad Lifetime movie."

"Domestic violence is wrong ... but what is even more troubling is when the government, the prosecutor, the sheriff's office starts picking the winners and losers, because that is what happened in this case."

Washington state Assistant Attorney General Laura Twitchell responded by arguing that there was no evidence showing why Swanberg would be afraid that Barnard was going to destroy his items or hurt him.

Barnard is a strategic projects director for the Tri-Cities Regional Chamber of Commerce and is currently running for the state Legislature.

Twitchell, who had to handle the case to avoid a conflict of interest with local prosecutors, argued: "Pushing someone so hard that they go down and a little bit across the room ... and end up with a bruise that is deep, dark and visible days later, that's an assault. Dragging someone from one room to another by the ankles ... is an assault."

Judge's testimony

Swanberg testified Wednesday that he never threw her or pushed her to the floor. And he said she slapped him.

Problems started after they came home from church. Swanberg said Barnard got upset because things around the house weren't getting done that needed to be done.

He testified that since she was in a bad mood, he decided to escape to a detached garage for a workout.

He said she was mad when she found him less than an hour later and she was angry about his tattoo because their church highly discourages tattoos.

"At that point in time, she screamed, blood curdling, just like I can't explain it," he testified. "It wasn't even a wail or anything. It was just she yelled as loud as she could at me, in particular."

As she continued screaming, he told her, "Why don't you just hit me?" But he wasn't expecting the slap that followed.

"I didn't even get it out of my mouth before, snap. I had her solid hand," he said.

He said she then grabbed a workout weight and threw it twice into a mirror, breaking the mirror and weight.

She then took a chin up bar and threatened him. When he didn't react, she threatened to break the windshield of his 2015 Mustang GT. He said he blocked one of her swings with his elbow.

He also said Barnard kicked a door hard enough to crack the door.

"I was pretty upset when she kicked that door in because she didn't know who or what was on the other side of that door. ... I just thought at that point in time that the level of recklessness was getting to the point where it could cause harm to our children."

Swanberg said he never took any action to try and stop her.

After that, they decided to file for divorce.

Confrontations

On Feb. 7, 2021, Swanberg said he was preparing for the divorce by moving items from the house to a storage unit that he had rented. That included some family photographs that he planned to get digitized and return to Barnard.

Swanberg said he took the photos while Barnard and her daughter were out of town.

When they returned, Barnard was upset and yelling at him that he couldn't just take anything he wanted.

"I didn't do anything. I just sat there and was awestruck to begin with," he said. "I didn't know what was going on."

As she was screaming, she poked him in the nose with her finger. At the time, he said he was lying on a bed on his back, and he grabbed her by the shoulders to move her away from him.

"I got my hands on where her shoulders are and I push up, in a way that I thought would not cause her any harm," he said.

Barnard had testified, however, that he threw her onto the floor, bruising her.

Next day

Swanberg said he tried to offer an olive branch the next day when he invited her to come with him to his storage unit.

When they arrived at the unit, he said Barnard got angry and started screaming that he didn't have any right to some of the items in the unit. She began grabbing items and throwing them into her car, including his golf clubs.

"At that point in time, I thought, 'This is just ridiculous,'" he said. "It's over the top. How could she have a problem with me taking my golf clubs."

While Barnard said she thought the clubs could have been her son's, Swanberg said he is the only one who plays golf.

Swanberg took out his phone and started recording her. When she noticed, she became angry and tried to knock the phone from his hand.

While Barnard testified that she hit the phone, Swanberg said she hit his arm and his head.

After they returned to the house, there was another confrontation while he was getting ready for work.

He testified that she refused to leave him alone and then stood in the doorway to prevent her from going into his bedroom to search for items.

He told the jury that she managed to force her way in a couple steps before he grabbed her arm. Then he said she went down to the ground.

Barnard had testified that she was already in the room and Swanberg caused her to fall down when he tried to force her out.

He said he didn't think it was safe to leave her in the room with his stuff so he dragged her out and shut the door.

A short time later, they argued again in the kitchen and she dumped protein powder over his head.

This story was originally published August 11, 202211:18 AM.

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