Ex-judge found dead at home

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 7, 2002

TREASURE ISLAND -- David Fred Patterson, a former chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco circuit and 2nd District Court of Appeal, was found dead at his home Friday in what a friend said appeared to be a suicide. He was 63.

Patterson

Patterson, who retired from the appeals court in 2001, battled alcoholism toward the end of a distinguished judicial career that began 30 years ago in Pinellas County.

Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice, a family friend, said Patterson's estranged wife, Johnna Patterson, found her husband's body about 1 p.m. after she visited his Treasure Island cottage because she was worried.

Rice, whom Mrs. Patterson called after dialing 911, said Patterson had killed himself using a gun.

"I think she knew he had been drinking," Rice said. "I believe they were trying to keep the marriage together. They were working on it. I think he had been drinking today. It's a terrible shame. He was one of the brightest judges I have ever known."

Mrs. Patterson, who had filed for divorce last year after 11 years of marriage, declined to comment when contacted through a friend. Divorce proceedings were still pending.

Treasure Island police refused to release details of their death investigation or to confirm that the death was a suicide.

Patterson's death shocked the Tampa Bay area's legal community. Patterson had been practicing law recently, looked cheerful and appeared by many accounts to be staying sober.

"It was very painful for me to see the alcoholism," said Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, a friend who was first sworn into office by Patterson. "I had heard rumors that he had started drinking again. Friends had tried to help him. I guess it didn't work. It makes you wonder what else we could have done."

Patterson first acknowledged to colleagues on the 2nd DCA that he had a drinking problem about 18 months before his retirement. He took two months off, entered an in-patient drug rehabilitation program and returned to the court.

But Patterson's troubles hit the news little more than a month after his retirement from the 2nd DCA when, in August 2001, Mrs. Patterson filed papers in Circuit Court seeking a domestic violence injunction against her husband.

She said Patterson had made violent threats against her while drinking heavily and had threatened suicide.

Police committed Patterson under the Baker Act to the psychiatric ward of St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg after finding him intoxicated at his home. A friend confiscated Patterson's four guns after the court ordered Patterson to give them up.

A Pinellas judge ordered his release after 10 days of commitment, though doctors fought to keep Patterson for alcoholism treatment.

Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger, whose office is appointed in Baker Act commitments, represented Patterson at a hearing and recalls being torn about helping get the judge released.

"I told him I would never represent him again," Dillinger said. "He just had to go get help. He thought he had control of his drinking and could stop any time he wanted. No one believed that."

Days after his release, Patterson was arrested on DUI charges. A test showed that his blood-alcohol level was three times the level at which a driver is presumed impaired. Patterson again entered a treatment program.

Recently, Patterson seemed on the mend.

He pleaded no contest to the DUI charge earlier this year and got probation, which successfully ended Sept. 20. He was practicing law again. The domestic violence injunction was dismissed in August.

"I had heard from some people that he was doing quite well," said Judge John Blue, chief judge of the 2nd DCA. "And I heard from others that maybe he wasn't. We're just sad we've lost such a good and talented person."

Patterson, an Ohio native, had lived in Pinellas since 1950. He graduated from the Stetson University College of Law and was appointed a justice of the peace in 1967, while he continued in private practice in St. Petersburg.

After his election to the Pinellas-Pasco circuit bench in 1972 for a term that began the next year, he served three terms as chief judge.

One of the most significant events in his career was his work on the merger of the Clearwater and St. Petersburg criminal courthouses to a central location off 49th street, a move that saved the circuit $1-million annually.

In 1989, he began serving on the 2nd DCA after his appointment by Gov. Bob Martinez. Patterson eventually served as that court's chief judge, too.

"To watch somebody with the career he had go through those problems is sad," said St. Petersburg lawyer Dick Rahter. "The man was just a great attorney and judge."

-- Times staff writer Curtis Krueger contributed to this report.

David Patterson's climb to prominence

David F. Patterson was born in Cincinnati in 1939 and moved to Pinellas County as a youth. He graduated from St. Petersburg Junior College, the University of Florida and Stetson University College of Law. Here are highlights of his legal career:

1964: Admitted to the Florida Bar. Because of high marks on bar exam, is selected to address Florida Supreme Court on behalf of new bar members.

1967: Appointed justice of the peace for Pinellas County, while continuing a private practice.

1972: Elected circuit judge for 6th Judicial Circuit, which covers Pinellas and Pasco counties. Served three terms as chief judge.

1982: Oversees merging of St. Petersburg and Clearwater criminal courthouses to new central location on 49th Street, saving an estimated $1-million a year.

1987: Notices that several professional Pinellas guardians were charging unusually high fees to help elderly wards. Alerts prosecutors, who eventually convict two guardians of theft.

1989: Appointed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, where he later serves as chief judge.

1989: Writes opinion in celebrated Kimberly Mays baby-swap case. Court rules that biological parents could not force DNA testing unless it served Kimberly's best interest. Father who had raised girl eventually agreed to tests when biological parents agreed not to seek custody.

1996: Writes opinion about pregnant teenage mother who tried to commit suicide by shooting herself in the stomach, but killed the fetus instead. The mother could be charged with manslaughter for having an illegal abortion, but not for first-degree murder, Patterson wrote.

July 2001: Resigns from 2nd DCA, goes to work for St. Petersburg office of Carlton Fields.

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