DAD SAYS HE SMUGGLED POT TO PROTECT SON IN PRISON

This is the story of a father's love gone astray.

But Jack Patterson, 55, a Minerva Park resident who could face up to
five years behind bars for smuggling drugs to his son in a state
prison, doesn't see it that way.

"We all have a job in life," Patterson said. "Protecting your kids is
part of it."

The North Side resident admits to hiding marijuana in a sandwich and
smuggling it into a state prison. But he has pleaded not guilty and is
fighting the charge, arguing that he was compelled to try to help his
son.

If found guilty of the third-degree felony charge, he could not only
serve prison time but also be fined up to $10,000.

His son, Joshua D. Patterson, 23, will be sentenced Friday in Madison
County Common Pleas Court for complicity to the same charge, also a
third-degree felony. Five years could be added to the five-to 25-year
sentence he's already serving.

It all started, the elder Patterson said, in February 2000 when his
son was transferred to the Madison Correctional Institution in London.
The young man went to prison originally in May 1996 on three charges
- - complicity to burglary, robbery and theft.

Patterson said his son soon reported that other inmates were
pressuring him to have drugs brought into the prison and threatening
him if he didn't cooperate. No official reports confirm the incidents,
however.

The young man asked for a transfer to another prison but was denied
because he had not been at Madison for at least a year. The elder
Patterson then hired Reggie Cooke, a local lawyer, paying him $1,600
in a failed effort to secure his son's transfer.

Cooke said Patterson hired him and that he wrote to warden Alan
Lazaroff requesting a meeting. But Cooke said the warden never granted
the meeting, suggesting that he should pursue his request through
other channels. He was unable to formally request a transfer.

Cooke said he was never told of threats against Patterson's son or the
drug-smuggling plot.

Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Corrections, said records show only the son's single request for a
transfer to another prison to obtain vocational training.

But the deal was sealed, in Patterson's eyes, when he visited his son
last year and saw marks on his neck, apparently where he had been
choked by another inmate.

"I told him to tell the guys inside: 'I'll take care of it. Tell them
to leave you alone,' " he said.

Patterson operates a tree service in Columbus and has no criminal
record. He said he had a hard time finding someone to sell him
marijuana and got "burned" by dealers a few times before buying the
drug. He packed 5.9 grams into a balloon, hid it in the sandwich, and
took it to his son on April 8, 2002. The State Highway Patrol and
prison officials, having intercepted phone conversations in which the
two discussed the plan, were prepared. Patterson spent three days in
jail. His trial is scheduled for Jan. 6.

Ida Strong, vice president and managing director of CURE Ohio, an
advocacy group, blames prison officials for ignoring pleas by the
inmate, his father and the father's attorney.

"He tried every legal avenue available to him to help his son,"
Strong said. "No, that's not a reason for him to knowingly break the
law. But if it was my son, I might be tempted."

Patterson awaits his trial date, dreading the thought of being in
prison until he is 60.

He has no regrets, though, about trying to help his
son.

"I'd do it again," he said.