Former Pinellas judge's death ruled a suicide

The death of former Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge David Fred Patterson has been ruled a suicide by the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office.

The office announced on Tuesday that Patterson, also a former chief judge of the 2nd District Court of Appeal, died of a gunshot to the chest. Patterson's body was found on Friday when his estranged wife visited his Treasure Island home to check on him out of worry.

Patterson, 63, retired from the 2nd DCA last year and was a former chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit, where he began serving in 1973.

His problems with alcohol became public last year when his wife filed to obtain a domestic violence injunction against him. Patterson later was arrested on a DUI charge and entered in-patient alcohol rehabilitation.

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