Police continue to investigate an allegation of improper conduct
with a female student against Sobrato High Football Head Coach and
Hollister resident Jeff Patterson, Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe
Sampson said Friday.
Morgan Hill – Police continue to investigate an allegation of improper conduct with a female student against Sobrato High Football Head Coach and Hollister resident Jeff Patterson, Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Friday.
“We may have something early next week,” he said. “We are finishing up interviews. At this point, what we are trying to do is go straight down the middle, take facts as they are coming to us. We look at the circumstances, the time, date and place, and at the same time, look at the possibility of trying to verify that all these people talking to us are telling the truth. That’s the route that we take, straight down the middle until the facts line up that either prove or disprove the allegation.”
No charges have been filed and Patterson has not been arrested, but according to the Morgan Hill Police Department’s daily activity log, a man on Tuesday told police his 17-year-old daughter forged a note to miss her sixth period math class on Friday, Nov. 4 at his urging. The man said his daughter told him she then met Patterson, believed to be 31, at a trailer park on Burnett Avenue, traveled to the Morgan Hill UPS store, then performed oral sex on him in his car while parked along the road.
Sampson said Patterson’s car, which was initially impounded as a part of the investigation, has been released.
“We look for evidence in a variety of places,” he said. “There’s nothing I can tell you about it, not at this point. Nothing has been confirmed.”
Larry Biegel, a criminal defense attorney contacted by Patterson earlier this week, could not be reached for comment. Phone calls to Patterson’s Hollister home were not returned.
Patterson joined the Sobrato staff in May of 2004 after serving as the head football coach and athletic director at Gonzales High School. He grew up in Gilroy and played quarterback for the Mustangs before graduating in 1992. He also attended and played football at Gavilan College. He graduated from San Jose State in 1998.
Meanwhile, by dedicating their last game of the season to their head coach, players of the Sobrato varsity football team showed their support of Patterson, who wasn’t at the game in Fortuna because he is on voluntary leave from his job as a Sobrato math teacher in the wake of the accusation.
Their support echoes what many students – who were unaware of the charges – say they feel. Students and parents contacted asked not to be identified.
A female sophomore student said she had not heard anything on campus about the football coach, but she said she did not believe the accusation could be true.
“There’s no way,” she said.
Sobrato parents contacted by telephone also said they had not heard anything about the incident.
Apparently, if the word had not spread on the Sobrato campus, at least some Live Oak students had heard the news. One parent, who also declined to be identified, said students on the Live Oak campus were talking about the allegation.
A story that ran in Thursday’s Gilroy Dispatch may have been the source.
Though the attitude of those Sobrato students and parents contacted were supportive of Patterson and skeptical of the allegation, the incident still may have an impact on the school climate.
“Even if the story is proven false, which we hope it is, it’s an awful thing for a student to have said about a teacher,” said one parent. “Why would you do something like that? And how is this going to affect everyone? Something like this just doesn’t go away.”
Another parent disagreed.
“I think the staff will be ultra-aware of potential situations like these, but I think even if this is true, the school has too much positive going for it,” she said. “It’s not going to ruin the school. The kids and the teachers started the school from scratch, and they won’t let it go down. There is a closeness, a really good atmosphere on the campus.”
The District Office and district schools were closed Friday in observance of Veterans Day, but Superintendent Alan Nishino said Wednesday that the district is committed to providing a safe school environment for its students, while also protecting the rights and privacy of its employees.
