YOUNGSTOWN — A jury found Brian T. Swansiger, 29, of New Middletown, guilty Monday of two counts of rape but not guilty of one lesser count of gross sexual imposition in a trial that began a week ago in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Maureen Sweeney could sentence Swansiger to about 20 years in prison when Swansiger is sentenced later.

The incidents that led to the charges date back to Sept. 4, 2018, when Swansiger was 21. The victim was 19. They had gone to school at Springfield Local High School at the same time, but they did not know each other personally in high school, the woman testified.

Swansiger and the woman made a connection through a dating app in September of 2018 and arranged a meet-up at her home in Struthers on Sept. 4, 2018, according to trial testimony.

The woman said that when she first started talking with Swansiger in the days leading up to Sept. 4, 2018, one of the first things he asked was whether they should shower together instead of showering separately before he got there. The woman responded that her “sisters wouldn’t like that.”

They made small talk, and then he asked for a sexy photo, but she said no and later said she didn’t like the idea of sending a photo. She testified that she did not send one. She gave him her address, and he arrived a little bit later that day for the meet-up.

She said they went to her bedroom, where a television program was on the television, and Swansiger wanted her to participate in sexual things she did not want.

She testified that he had sex with her against her will. She repeatedly told him to stop, but at some point she felt “helpless,” she said. Afterward, he left. Two days later, she went to the hospital, where a rape kit was performed, she said.

Defense attorney Mark Lavelle cross-examined the woman extensively June 9, for instance, asking her to explain why, at one point, when Swansiger asked her in a text message if she would send a photo of her body, she replied, “It don’t matter to me.”

She said, “I just kind of said it so he would stop asking” about photos because she was “not that cool with it,” she testified.

Lavelle read a part of the messages in which Swansiger asked whether the leggings she was wearing come off easy, and she said, “Yes.”

“Well, what does that mean to you?” Lavelle asked.

“He was just asking if I could take it off, and I just said yes to … get him to stop asking those types of questions,” she said.

In opening statements in the trial, prosecutors started with the statement “No means no” and asked the woman on numerous occasions during her testimony if she made it clear to Swansiger that she did not want to have sex with him, and she repeatedly stated that she did make that clear.

Swansiger did not testify in the trial.

ONE WITNESS MONDAY

The final witness of the trial Monday was a woman who testified that she met Swansiger on a dating app in late 2023. And after several weeks of communications, they made arrangements to go on a date in Kent on Jan. 1, 2024.

The woman, who said she graduated from college several years ago and is now an investigator for a child-protective-services agency, testified that very early in their communications, Swansiger asked for nude photos of her.

“I shot that down with not being comfortable. And then eventually he sent me photos of himself naked,” she said.

She did send him nude photos a couple of weeks after they first started talking, she said.

On the day of the date, before they met in person, “I made myself very clear that I wanted this to be a date and nothing sexual,'” she testified.

He responded that, “He respected that and understood, and I deserved to know what it’s like to go on a real date because it was my first date,” she said.

She said when she walked over to his car, “He greeted me, he kissed me, he gave me flowers. And then he took my right hand and put it on his (groin) area,” she said.

“And I just kind of pulled it away, kind of shocked that happened,” she said.

They had dinner with nothing sexual happening. He asked if she wanted to “make out” in his car, and she agreed.

When they got in his car, he “started making out with me. He was “very aggressive. He put his hand around my throat and slammed me into the passenger seat. He started pulling my hair real hard. I finally said ‘Ow!'”

She said he asked if he could touch her chest, and she said no. But then he grabbed her chest area and bit her chest area, leaving marks. “I said ‘Stop’ and that it hurt,” she said.

He said, “Those are definitely going to leave a mark” and seemed “proud of it,” she said. He kept asking her to do other things, and she kept telling him no, she said. “He kept asking and asking,” she said. “And finally, after him not accepting no, I gave in” momentarily, she said. The episode continued, including at a park where he drove them next, she said.

When Lavelle cross-examined her, he asked whether Swansiger used any threatening words toward her as she got in the back seat of Swansiger’s car and he had sex with her.

“Not words,” the woman said.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Hilles asked the woman later if Swansiger was aggressive with her in the car, and she said, “Right away.”

“Was he bigger than you?” Hilles asked.

“Yes,” she said.

She said she knew that Swansiger was a volunteer firefighter and in the military. Hilles asked if she told Swansiger no multiple times. She said she told him, “No. I don’t want to. I’m uncomfortable.”

“And by the end, did you feel you had any choice?” Hilles asked.

“No,” she said.

Lavelle asked if a rape charge was filed against Swansiger in Portage County related to her allegations, and she said yes and agreed that the rape charge was later dismissed.

A Thursday filing in Mahoning County in the Swansiger case by Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kristie Weibling argued that the victim in a Portage County case should be allowed to testify in the Mahoning County case.

There was no ruling from Sweeney available Monday on the motion, but apparently Sweeney approved it since the woman in the Portage County case testified Monday.

In the Portage County case, Swansiger pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault and gross sexual imposition in September and was sentenced last month to one year in prison with credit for 124 days previously served in jail awaiting trial.

The woman in the Portage County case testified Monday that she and Swansiger had talked about Swansiger having been charged in 2018 in the Mahoning County case, and she said yes. “He said it was all false,” the woman said.