Judge hands down sentence of 3-7 years for sex with student
DENISE HEILBRUN Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Friday, August 24, 2007 12:00 am
TORRINGTON -- A former high school teacher and coach was sentenced Thursday to three to seven years in prison for having a sexual relationship with a student in 2002 and 2003.
"It was wrong and it was sinful," Norman W. "Buddy" Patterson said during his sentencing in 8th Judicial District Court.
Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit with his hands and feet shackled, he spoke to the victim, her family and his family.
Patterson in May pleaded guilty to two felony counts of immoral and indecent liberties with a minor. That was part of an agreement with prosecutors under which 10 other counts were dropped.
District Judge John R. Perry concurred with the plea agreement, which also had the support of the victim, her family and Patrick Korell, the Goshen County prosecuting attorney.
In addition to the three- to seven-year sentence on one of the counts, Patterson received a suspended sentence of four to seven years on the other. He will be placed on 10 years of probation when he is released from prison, and he will be registered as a sex offender.
During Thursday's court hearing, Korell said the incidents began when the victim was a sophomore at Lingle-Fort Laramie High School and lasted through her senior year. He said most of the incidents happened at the school, some of them occurring before and after basketball games in which he was the coach and she was a player.
Korell said Patterson was a teacher, coach, church counselor, community leader and close family friend who took advantage of his position of authority and used it to gain the victim's trust.
The initial sexual contact took place in 2002 at Patterson's home, Korell said. Afterward, the victim told a counselor that something had happened, and the counselor warned the family. The parents confronted Patterson, and he told them nothing had happened and nothing would ever happen.
"He said, 'Why would you make this up and lie about something like that?'" Korell told the court.
The incidents continued as Patterson used his power of authority over the victim even after graduation when she was 18, 19 and 20 years old, he added.
"When you start saying it was consensual, that's certainly suspect," Korell said.
Patterson's attorney, Cole Sherard, said Patterson will never be able to coach or teach again, or be in the military. He had been a major in the Wyoming Army National Guard.
Sherard said Patterson is not a danger to anyone and is now seeking to make things right.
"What I did was wrong -- it was immoral and it was unethical," Patterson said in the presentence investigation report.
Allowed speak Thursday, Patterson apologized to the victim and her family. He then apologized to his wife and four daughters who were sitting behind him in the courtroom, saying that he has robbed himself of years of being with his family.
He also apologized to the North Hills Baptist Church membership and the Lingle-Fort Laramie community, which he said has been torn in half by his actions.
"I hope that you can all find it in your hearts to forgive," he said.
Perry told Patterson that he was held in high esteem as an educator and coach and as a member of the military -- that he was one of the people everyone looked up to.
"Now those people wonder, 'Who can we trust?'" the judge said.