Teacher faces felony over relationship with student

A former Stevens County schoolteacher and coach accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student is facing felony charges.

Robert M. Swalstad, a former teacher at Columbia High School in Hunters, Wash., was arrested in June on suspicion of third-degree rape of a child after Natasha A. Finley came forward and said she was pregnant with Swalstad’s baby.

Swalstad was not officially charged by the Stevens County Prosecutor’s Office until Tuesday. He now faces a charge of communication with a minor for immoral purposes, said prosecutor Jerry Wetle.

According to Washington code, the charge is a class C felony, carrying a maximum sentence of five years, a fine of $10,000, or both. If convicted, Swalstad will also be required to register as a sex offender, Wetle said.

According to court records, Finley, who is now 16, married Swalstad, 31, in September in Worland, Wyo., where Swalstad is living with his parents.

Washakie County Judge Gary Hartman signed a court order dated Aug. 29 allowing the minor girl to marry Swalstad, after the girl’s mother, Kristine Finley, petitioned the court and set up an appointment to meet with the judge. Hartman agreed to issue the license, but he stipulated that the couple attend marriage counseling, including a series called “Marriage on the Rocks.”

Swalstad was previously married to a woman in Hunters.

Natasha Finley is expected to give birth to Swalstad’s child in January, about the same time Swalstad is expected to return to Stevens County for a court appearance.

“I’ve cried a million tears. … He has ruined my granddaughter’s life,” said Charlotte Etue, Finley’s grandmother. “A year ago, I had a normal little 15-year-old granddaughter who was a cheerleader at school, who was happy and loved everybody.”

Etue said a child advocate in Colville told the family to take Finley to Wyoming to be with Swalstad, because eventually “she would be so homesick she would want to come back.”

“Now he’s brainwashed her. She wasn’t down there two weeks, and he had her emancipated,” Etue said. “And now we have lost her.”

Etue said the teacher preyed on her granddaughter during hard times. The girl was vulnerable after losing her 17-year-old boyfriend in an automobile accident in 2004, Etue said.

“She thinks she is in love with him … and she tells us to deal with it,” Etue said.

According to records from the Columbia School District, Swalstad was hired in 2002 to teach high school physical education and to coach girls’ volleyball. About a year later, complaints of his inappropriate behavior with students in the 220-student district surfaced.

Beginning in 2003 and until his resignation, records show Swalstad was counseled repeatedly by school district officials for his behavior, which included having female students at his home alone and allowing students access to his personal belongings. In 2004, another girl at the school became pregnant, and there was concern that the child was Swalstad’s, according to the records.

Swalstad also “bragged” to male students about his affairs with female students, the records state. He resigned from coaching volleyball and track at the urging of school district officials, “because there were girls involved in both,” the records show. One girl admitted to having sex with Swalstad, but not until she was 18 and had graduated.

Swalstad’s Washington state teaching certificate was revoked in October, which became official earlier this month following a state investigation into his behavior. He resigned from his teaching post in July.

Residents in the small town located west of the Spokane Indian Reservation said they feel like justice is not being served. The community organized a meeting with Wetle back in June and asked him at that time to pursue the maximum penalty for Swalstad.

“We made repeated calls to his office to find out what was going on,” said resident Cathy Cogdell. “The bottom line is that it is his job to prosecute when the law has been broken. The state of Washington has said we will not tolerate an adult man having sex with a minor child. If we know that that’s happened, we’ve elected him to uphold the law.”

Wetle said he could not comment on the details of the case.

Citizens also came forward and said they had concerns about why the school district did not act sooner.

“We are talking about a grown man that had authority over a minor-child student, groomed her, manipulated her and took advantage of her,” Cogdell said. “I think we are all outraged by this.”