After a lengthy investigation, Jeff Patterson is arrested on
suspicion of sex with a student
Morgan Hill – A former Gilroy High School alum who taught at Sobrato High School and coached the varsity football team was arrested Monday after months of investigations into allegations he had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old female student.
Morgan Hill Police Cmdr. Joe Sampson said a warrant was issued for Jeff Patterson Monday morning on suspicion of unlawful sex with a minor and a felony oral copulation with a minor.
Patterson’s lawyer, Larry Biegel, did not return a call for comment. Calls to Patterson’s Hollister home were not returned.
“We contacted him and his attorney, and he agreed to self-surrender at the police department,” Sampson said Monday afternoon. “He came in without event, of his own accord. Because he is not a flight risk, he was able to post bail, $10,000, so he did not have to go to county jail.”
If convicted, the charges are punishable by up to a year in jail, Sampson said. The date of Patterson’s first court appearance was not released by presstime.
The student allegedly told her father that Patterson “urged” her to forge a note to get out of her sixth-period class on Friday, Nov. 4, then picked her up in his car as she waited on Burnett Avenue. The father, who reported the incident to police the following Tuesday, told officers she said they went to the UPS store before driving to a side street and parking. While they were parked there, she allegedly performed oral sex on Patterson. The Dispatch is not naming the teen because she is a minor.
According to the entry in the Morgan Hill police dispatch log for Nov. 8, when the girl’s father called police, he told them he “believes the acts may be consensual, but the daughter did see a counselor today because she is very emotional.”
Patterson, who is married, was a math teacher at Sobrato and the head football coach at the 3-year-old high school. 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.
In 2001, Patterson coached the Gilroy football team under head coach Darren Yafai. He served as the Mustang’s freshman football coach in 2002.
Sampson said the Morgan Hill Police Department spent between 160 and 200 man hours on the investigation, which involved two detectives, two school resource officers, a detective sergeant, two patrol officers and occasionally himself.
Sampson said that during the nearly six-month-long investigation, police conducted interviews with a number of individuals and collected DNA evidence.
“We collect DNA through a variety of methods,” he said. “It can be a hair follicle, something on a swab, fluids. Those kind of tests tend to extend the length of the investigation.”
But the DNA evidence was important enough to wait for, he said.
“In this kind of a case, you really need both kinds of evidence,” said Sampson. “Particularly in a he-said-she-said case, you’re looking for things that confirm or rule out if the two people were in the same place at the same time.”
Patterson’s accuser could not be contacted. The family denied requests for interviews at their south San Jose home Monday afternoon. In an earlier interview, the girl accused Patterson of seducing her.
Patterson has been on paid leave from his teaching position at Sobrato since November. During the Sobrato football program’s end of season banquet on Nov. 16, both the junior varsity and varsity teams were honored, but Patterson was not in attendance. He was also forced to miss the team’s last game Nov. 11 in Fortuna.
Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Alan Nishino said the district cannot comment on the arrest or on the charges because it is a personnel issue.
“What I can tell you is that we have cooperated with the police department. We will continue to cooperate,” he said.
Investigation Timeline
– Nov. 4: The student allegedly misses sixth period and rides with Jeff Patterson to remote location.
– Nov. 8: The father of the alleged victim calls Morgan Hill Police to report his daughter has been involved in a relationship with Patterson.
– Nov. 9: District puts Patterson on paid leave.
– Nov. 11: Patterson does not travel with his varsity team to the last game of the season. The team learns of the accusations.
– Nov. 16: Patterson does not attend the banquet for the junior varsity and varsity teams.
– Nov. 28: Initial investigation by MH Police is completed. The case is handed to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office sexual assault team supervisor Victoria Brown, who later requests additional information from the police.
– Jan. 20: The MHPD wraps up the second round of intensive investigation into the case.
– Jan. 24: Brown sends the case back to MHPD again for more investigation.
– April 3: Brown issues a warrant for Patterson’s arrest on charges of felony oral copulation with a minor and unlawful sex with a minor.
