A prosecutor's attempt to charge a Stockton California woman with a sex crime, one that could have required a Megan's Law registration for allegedly mooning an elderly couple in a San Joaquin County Superior Court elevator, was denied by a judge Tuesday.
Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor had sought a misdemeanor indecent exposure charge - along with a felony counts of attempting to dissuade a witness and elder abuse - against Katherine Patterson, 58, for exposing her right buttock and thigh to Donald and Nita Reinhart as they were leaving a court appearance in an embezzlement case. In that case, the Reinharts alleged Patterson's daughter-in-law bilked their charter bus company of $240,000 in cash deposits more than six years ago.
Judge Franklin Stephenson did not agree with Taylor's assessment that the mooning was a sexual affront as described in case law, nor was it elder abuse. He did, however, uphold the felony charge of attempting to dissuade a witness.
Nita Reinhart, 69, testified Tuesday about leaving the courtroom and walking with her husband into a courthouse elevator. Before the doors closed, Patterson and her daughter-in-law and granddaughter joined them.
Reinhart said Patterson stood next to her and then mooned the couple, pulling her pants down and exposing her right thigh and buttock.
Patterson said, "They can just kiss my a-s-s," according to Reinhart, who chose to spell out the word in court rather than say it. She said she was more embarrassed by the mooning than anything.
Reinhart and her husband had planned to leave their business to Patterson's daughter-in-law before they discovered the alleged embezzlement. Reinhart, who is frail and under a doctor's care, walks with a cane and took the witness stand with the help of a bailiff. Patterson's attorney, Richard Gibson, asked Reinhart how much of the defendant's backside she saw in a series of questions that appeared uncomfortable for Reinhart.
Stephenson did require Patterson to stand trial on the felony charge of attempting to dissuade a witness. Testimony by the Reinharts indicated that Patterson had frequently made "childlike" facial gestures at them in the hallways of the Stockton branch of the San Joaquin County Court building over the course the six-year-long embezzlement case.
"She would laugh and smirk at us. She would put her thumbs to her ears and wag her fingers at us," Donald Reinhart said on the stand. "She'd stick out her tongue at us."
Taylor argued that the behavior was essentially a case of bullying toward an elderly couple. He said the constant "tongue-wagging and finger-waving" was a contrived plan to intimidate the Reinharts from coming to the courthouse. Taylor said Patterson's husband, David Patterson, continued the intimidating behavior Tuesday when he appeared in the courtroom despite a restraining order against him filed by Nita Reinhart, prompting Stephenson to toss him out of the courthouse.
"It's like a bunch of kids, and it's just ridiculous behavior that shouldn't be put up with," Taylor said.
Stephenson dismissed the charge of elder abuse, agreeing with defense attorney Gibson, who argued the prosecution did not present evidence that the Reinharts were in physical danger or were placed in declining health by any of Patterson's alleged actions.
