CLOQUET , Minn. — Sought by authorities since June, the search for a man now charged with 50 sex crimes in Andrew County, Mo. has ended after he was caught in Minnesota on Thursday. The Cloquet Police Department reports it captured James Michael Swett at about 8 a.m. as he was walking with his wife and two kids near a park.
Swett was arrested and taken to the Carlton County Jail where he’ll be held pending extradition according to a news release from the police department. The department said the Andrew County Sheriff’s Office notified it on Wednesday that Swett may have been in the city, which is close to Interstate 35 and about 22 miles southwest of Duluth, Minnesota.
Detective Darrin Berg said Swett had moved around from Tennessee to Iowa and eventually made his way north to the Minnesota shores of Lake Superior. Det. Berg said he also spent time in Superior, Wisconsin where he met someone who had an apartment in Cloquet. The detective said that Swett had been residing in the city since August 2. The timetable for Swett’s extradition to Missouri isn’t precisely known, but may occur in the next few weeks.
Swett had previously been jailed in July of 2013, but was freed after posting $100,000 bond through a surety company for eight felony counts including child molestation, forcible sodomy and statutory sodomy.
A previous news release from the Andrew County Sheriff’s Office indicated before Swett could go to trial, those charges were thrown out and new charges were filed on June 11, 2014 following a Missouri Highway Patrol investigation. He is now charged with 14 counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, 14 counts of child molestation, 14 counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse and five counts of sodomy.
Online court records show that Swett’s charges for statutory sodomy were against victims that were less than 12 years old. Furthermore, the case against him for the sodomy charges date back to incidents in June of 1989 and January of 1994. His charges for sexual abuse date back to 1991 according to court records. He’s to be held without bond according to the sheriff’s office and online court records.
