OGDEN — Judge Camille Neider followed through Thursday on what she told a child kidnapping convict in September.

“One person will make or break this case, and that is you,” she had told Ethan Swisher in that 2nd District Court hearing. “I will not hesitate to send you to prison to make sure (the victim) and other children are safe.”

In September, Neider suspended Swisher’s prison sentence for trying to kidnap a 10-year-old South Ogden boy and gave him a chance of probation and a rigorous drug court program.

“If you screw this up, there is no one to blame but you,” she told him.

But Swisher, 32, was back before the judge Thursday, having been found in violation of his probation.

“You’ve been led to the water and you refuse to drink,” Neider said, adding that she now had no choice but to impose the original penalty.

In a plea bargain, Swisher last year pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree felony kidnapping. Neider on Thursday revoked his probation and sentenced him to one to 15 years in state prison, plus up to five years on a methamphetamine possession conviction.

The judge said she would recommend to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole that Swisher be offered substance addiction and mental health treatment at the prison.

On April 20, 2021, the boy’s father called police to report that a man tried to get his son to go with him. The man told the boy his parents had asked him to take him home, but the boy refused and ran from the man. A Burch Creek Elementary crossing guard saw the incident and identified Swisher.

The boy remains traumatized by the incident and the family fears Swisher will return to the neighborhood, Weber County prosecutor Patrick Tan said at the first sentencing. Swisher lived with his parents just a few houses away from the school. Tan read to the court a statement from the boy’s parents that said Swisher had been following the victim, his brother and other children.

Davis County mental health court officials agreed to take Swisher into their program in September, defense attorney Ryan Bushell said. Swisher was accepted into a sober living program to get help for conditions including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and narcotics abuse.

Bushell said parents in the area “knew to keep their children away” from Swisher. He said Swisher was high on methamphetamine that day and also has been diagnosed with depression.

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