Patterson’s attorneys make emergency push to obtain cell phone videos
Less than a week before Anthony Patterson’s trial is set to begin, defense attorneys are pushing to obtain videos and messages from the cell phone of a woman accused of conspiring with him — information they contend could help prove his innocence.
At a hearing 8 a.m. Friday at the Wichita County Courthouse, 78th District Judge Meredith Kennedy will consider whether to order Jandreani Bell to turn over her cell phone and passcode as requested by the defense team for the former Wichita Falls business leader.
The defense wants a specialist to search her cell phone for videos and electronic messages potentially favorable to Patterson’s defense and possibly serving to raise a reasonable doubt about his guilt.
Bell is expected to testify for the state in his trial with an immunity agreement that her testimony won’t be used against her in the prosecution of her cases.
Defense attorneys said in an emergency motion filed Tuesday that Bell is an admitted sex worker who has changed her story.
They point to videos she provided to prosecutors and claims she made this month to law enforcement officials about the girls’ mother.
It is unclear if Patterson’s trial would be delayed if Kennedy grants the emergency defense motion for Bell to turn her phone over for a search. Patterson’s attorneys also propose more steps after a specialist extracts information from it.
The judge has set aside time Monday for hearings before jury selection begins 1:30 p.m. that day at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth.
Patterson is expected to be tried on a 13-count indictment in connection with incidents in November and December of 2017. He is accused of child trafficking and child sexual abuse in connection with two girls, 8 and 10, who are related to Bell.
Among other things, Bell is suspected of bringing the girls from Vernon to Patterson in Wichita Falls after he expressed a sexual interest in children, according to allegations in court records.
He and Bell have entered not guilty pleas. Anyone accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Patterson, 47, was free Thursday from the Wichita County Detention Center on bail over $2 million for a host of charges, some dating back to 2004 and 2005 when a woman alleges he sexually assaulted her while she was underage, according to court and jail records.
Patterson’s attorneys are following up on a notice they received Oct. 20 from prosecutors detailing evidence potentially favorable to his defense. Prosecutors are bound by law to provide such evidence.
Their notice to Patterson’s attorneys includes information about the girls, their mother, Bell and others. For instance, earlier this month, Bell told law enforcement officials she has a recording with another woman saying Patterson paid the girls’ mother $50,000.
Bell also told officials this month the girls’ mother knew why her daughters were going to Wichita Falls and was OK with it, court records show.
The notice from prosecutors was filed as an exhibit with the emergency defense motion.
Brooke Grona-Robb, Special Victims Unit chief for the Wichita County District attorney‘s Office, had asked to seal the notice since it refers to Child Protective Services records and has explicit statements about alleged child sexual abuse.
Prosecutors also provided the defense team with two videos they got from Bell, according to the defense motion. One is 16 seconds long. The other is 56 seconds long, and it is a video made of a video played on Bell’s phone.
Defense attorneys do not believe that is good enough.
They want a specialist to extract the recordings to determine if Bell gave prosecutors the entire videos and to glean other information about them.
In addition, they contend there is no evidence showing Patterson paid the girls’ mother. If there had been, prosecutors would have included it in their laundry list of allegations against him.
What’s more, the mother testified for the prosecution in an Oct. 12 pretrial hearing, and Bell is also a witness for the prosecution.
“One of them — or both — are lying about material facts in this case,” defense attorneys said in their motion.
Patterson’s lawyers proposed a protective order to limit what information from Bell’s phone can be disclosed and who can see it.
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.
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