Allegations resurface, candidate remains transparent

Originally Published in the August 29 issue of the Mineral Independent

In July of 2008, a fellow University of Montana student accused former UM student Nick Schwaderer of sexual assault – the allegations were investigated and no charges were filed. 

Shortly after Schwaderer filed his candidacy for the Montana House of Representative District 14, a seat that represents Mineral and Sanders counties as well as Missoula county up to Frenchtown, his accuser resurfaced and brought her allegations to both the local Republican Party and the Missoulian. 

“I feel in some ways that there has been kind of a cloud over my head for four years since this happened,” Schwaderer said. “When you meet people they don’t know that these allegations happened and it bugs you. But this might be an opportunity for my life, this isn’t a campaign thing, to get it out.”

Schwaderer was represented by Attorney Lance Jasper throughout the investigation. 

“There was an allegation that Nick had committed a sexual assault,” Jasper said. “Nick came to me and cooperated with the police. The police did a full investigation and Detective Jamie Merifield did a full investigation. At the end of it, they found absolutely no basis for the charges. Essentially, it was non-existent.” 

However, after Schwaderer filed to run for public office, his accuser resurfaced - apparently attempting to use the charges to force him to step down from candidacy.

“I filed on day three or four,” Schwaderer said. “It had been like a year long run up to decide to run. I filed and was then contacted March 26 by two people in the (Republican) party. She had contacted them personally – basically trying to force me out of the election.” 

According to Schwaderer, the Republican Party told his accuser that they would not and could not remove him from the election, but they wanted answers from him as to the nature of the situation. 

“I talked to them on the phone and I was told they asked if she was going to go to the media with this if I didn’t drop out,” Schwaderer said. “She said she would rather not.” 

Schwaderer was then contacted at 8 a.m. on June 12 by a reporter with The Missoulian – he said at first it was a normal phone call until the reporter said “I have some very difficult questions for you.” 

“I realilzed, it just hit,” Schwaderer said. “My mom took over the phone call and at one point the reporter was just screaming at her.” 

The Missoulian once again called Schwaderer’s home on July 12 and they responded by providing an official statement to the newspaper. 

“(The statement said) that I adamantly denied any allegations and that it was thoroughly investigated,” Schwaderer said. “No charges were ever brought.” 

Jasper stated “if this girl is going to try to extort or try to force him out of the race”, Schwaderer would waive his right to privacy and allow information regarding to the investigation to be reopened. This would also require cooperation from his accuser since the findings were closed when no charges were brought in the case.

“If they want the truth, if the people want the truth of what happened, then this individual needs to simply give her consent to disseminate the confidential justice information and allow anyone to interview Detective Merifield,” Jasper said. “They will see that there were no charges and that they were dropped.” 

According to Jasper, the accuser will likely not agree to this since at the end of the investigation she admits that nothing happened. Instead, his accuser and the Missoulian are pursuing a new route – that of two orders of protection filed during and after the investigation. 

“Any time I do a criminal investigation with a sexual assault it usually involves, in the beginning, one side wants an order of protection,” Jasper said. “I don’t usually go fight those because I don’t want my client next to that person and you don’t want to get in a battle at the beginning of something that’s more important. If a person gets charged with sexual assault, it can ruin your life.” 

Jasper called the order of protection a “red herring” and once again stated that Schwaderer is more than willing to allow the information from the investigation to be released. 

“Now because this individual is trying to use it for leverage, and I don’t know what her angle is,” Jasper said. “It just needs to be flushed out now.” 

Schwaderer also said the Missoulian has questioned why he left the University of Montana shortly after the allegations occurred and the investigation was concluded as well as an incident involving a violation of a second order of protection. 

The violation occurred when Schwaderer was walking with a group of friends to a Grizz football game in September of 2008. He said the day went well and he had a good time at the game, but then received a letter in the mail stating that he violated the order of protection on the walk. 

“When I got that letter from the University Police it pretty much proved the point that I couldn’t be at the university,” Schwaderer said. “If I can’t be within so many feet of so-and-so, how can I be on campus ever?” 

Schwaderer said that neither he nor his friends ever saw the accuser during the walk to the game and Jasper added that the violation resulted in a deferred sentence and was removed from his record. 

“It’s gone now (the order of protection), if she was afraid of him she wouldn’t have let it expire,” Jasper said. “The whole purpose is they are trying to work out a way to dirty someone before they have a chance to say something. Our point is that there is nothing to hide at all. We would be glad to have you look at it (the investigation), but if she is unwilling to do it we aren’t going to get that information.”  

Schwaderer added that he doesn’t think any of the opposition is behind the allegations resurfacing. 

“I have always been big on supporting transparency in government,” Schwaderer said. “I think this is part of that. I don’t think it would be appropriate, especially with the facts being what they are, (if we) kept this under our hats and let the Missoulian run a big thing on it. We want to get it out there. We want the truth out and I think it’s appropriate for it to come out so people can think what they will of the truth.”