Police were listening during three telephone calls made last
November to Hollister resident Jeff Patterson by the 17-year-old
female high school student who accused him of having a sexual
encounter with her less than a day earlier, according to Santa
Clara County Superior Court documents.
Morgan Hill – Police were listening during three telephone calls made last November to Hollister resident Jeff Patterson by the 17-year-old female high school student who accused him of having a sexual encounter with her less than a day earlier, according to Santa Clara County Superior Court documents.
Patterson has been on leave from Morgan Hill’s Sobrato High School since the allegation and phone calls were made. He refused to comment on the case or his arrest Monday when contacted by a reporter late yesterday afternoon. His attorney, Larry Biegel, also refused to comment.
“I haven’t seen that yet,” he said Friday, referring to the transcripts of the conversations contained in Patterson’s criminal case file. “If you’ve seen that, you’ve seen more than I have.”
The calls were made with the assistance of Morgan Hill Police Cpl. Shane Palsgrove at the police station late Nov. 8 and early Nov. 9 to Patterson’s home and Sobrato High classroom.
On the morning of Nov. 8, 2005, the alleged victim delivered three shirts, one sweatshirt, one bra and one scarf which she said had worn on Nov. 4 – the day of the alleged encounter – and had not washed yet. The clothes were later logged into evidence, according to the documents.
Jeff J. Patterson, 31, of Hollister, was arrested on Monday for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and felony unlawful oral copulation with a minor. He has yet to be charged. The former football coach and math teacher will be arraigned May 23. He is free on $10,000 bail. If found guilty, Patterson could serve a maximum of three years in jail and be required to register as a sex offender. His teaching credential will also be revoked.
The student told her father – and later told police in several interviews – that Patterson “urged” her to forge a note so she could leave the campus after fifth period. She said she forged the note and left campus during sixth period, Patterson’s prep period, to walk down Burnett Avenue where Patterson planned to pick her up in his car. He allegedly drove her to the UPS store, then to a parking lot at Hale and Tilton avenues, where they had a sexual encounter, and she performed oral sex on him, she told the investigator.
The transcripts of the phone calls placed from the MHPD by the student appear to reveal Patterson understood what the student was talking about when she said she wanted to discuss “what happened.”
Biegel said he did not want to talk to the media about the case.
“We’re going to prepare this case,” Biegel said Friday. “We’ve been completely cooperative with the authorities … They’ve been very nice about it. We’re going to try this case in court, not in the press.”
Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Steve Fein will prosecute the case.
In a letter to the MHPD contained in Patterson’s file, Biegel asks that Patterson’s background – that he has no arrest record or past history of any criminal behavior – be mentioned to the judge making the bail assessment, including the fact that Patterson has lived his whole life in Santa Clara County and has family ties in the area.
Copies of interviews conducted by the Morgan Hill Police and contained in Patterson’s file show the student described herself to police as “sexually active.” Police also interviewed numerous people who knew the alleged victim and staff members at the school.
Evidence was also taken from Patterson’s car. The alleged victim provided DNA samples to police which were sent to the Santa Clara County Crime Lab for testing. Numerous interviews were conducted with at least five people. The DA’s Office was awaiting results from the crime lab and was asking the police department to conduct additional interviews during the five-month investigation.
