Stephen Patterson
A 54-year-old Fallon man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in District Court to numerous charges of statutory sexual seduction.
Stephen Demont Patterson of Fallon entered the plea to 12 counts of statutory sexual seduction, and a four-day trial is set for the summer. Patterson faces one to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each count.
Patterson was arrested in February and is being held at the Churchill County Jail on $250,000 bond.
According to Fallon Police Detective Jerry Edwards, Patterson was being held in jail on an unrelated misdemeanor charge when Patterson was served with the statutory sexual seduction warrant.
Edwards said authorities were tipped by an anonymous source and the investigation is ongoing. Patterson was originally charged with 70 counts stemming from March 2012 through January.
According to the court records, Patterson engaged in a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl in April 2012. The two met the previous month and, according to the girl’s preliminary hearing testimony, they started having sexual contact soon after.
In addition, the girl testified the two had sex at her mother’s home while friends and relatives were in the residence. She also admitted the two engaged in acts at his residence.
According to testimony, the girl said she had sex with Patterson 39 times, but said she was a willing participant and the two “were in love.” Churchill County Senior Deputy District Attorney Ben Shawcroft asked the victim how she remembered the exact number, and the girl replied she kept a diary.
In addition, the victim also said it was like a game and that if she and Patterson reached 300 sexual encounters, then “... he’d never get tired of me.”
“We knew it was wrong — but we loved each other,” she said.
According to her testimony, the two met in March 2012 at the victim’s mother’s home. A friend of Patterson’s was staying with the victim’s mother and Patterson would come over to visit.
The girl said she flirted with Patterson several times before the two started their sexual encounters. The first, according to her testimony, was on the front porch of her mother’s home.
In other court news —
Wayne Andrew Jackson pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of trafficking in a controlled substance, 28 grams or more, a Category A felony.
He will be sentenced June 25 and faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years or a definite term of 25 years with a possibility of parole after 10 years.
In addition, Jackson’s plea agreement stipulates he will submit to a civil forfeiture in the amount of $40,000. Jackson’s attorney, Justin Clouser, said his client must sell his home to cover the cost of the forfeiture.
Jackson was arrested last year after an investigation by the North Central Narcotics Task Force discovered a methamphetamine lab at his residence.
In court, Jackson said he went to Reno to buy “dope” and brought it back to his home. His partner, Wendy Lattin, had a child at the residence, and the drugs were discovered during a welfare check, Jackson said.
Anthony Sanchez pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent exposure, a gross misdemeanor.
Sanchez, 46, is accused of having sex with Donna Deroche, 48, on the porch of the Churchill Arts Center in March. Sanchez’s two-day trial was pushed four months out so the Churchill County Disitrict Attorney’s Office could try Sanchez and Deroche together.