Lewd conduct cases heading toward trial

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint man already awaiting trial in one lewd and lascivious conduct case waived his right to a preliminary hearing in a second case on Wednesday.

Shardan Cody Patterson is scheduled to be arraigned in both lewd conduct cases on June 18 in 1st District Court. He is also charged with possession of methamphetamine.

He remains held at the Bonner County Jail on a combined bail of $150,000.

Patterson, 26, was arrested in April on charges that he molested a 3-year-old boy in 2010. Patterson was investigated at the time, but no charges were brought because the alleged victim was too young to testify, according to court documents.

Patterson allegedly relocated to North Dakota in response to the allegations, but returned to Idaho after he was accused of molesting a young girl in Grand Forks, N.D. He was arrested upon his return to Idaho.

Two weeks after his arrest, a second criminal complaint was filed against Patterson, accusing him of repeatedly molesting a Bonner County girl from 2003 to 2009, when she was between the ages of 8 and 15 years old.

A computer, mobile phones and data storage devices were seized when investigators executed a search warrant at his Sandpoint apartment. An assortment of video recordings and photographs were also seized, although the contents are not disclosed in court records.

The search also turned up a young girl’s shirt and underwear, according to court documents.

The mother of the alleged victim in North Dakota said authorities there are not prosecuting Patterson because of a lack of physical evidence.

“It burns quite a bit that I put my daughter through testifying just so that he could not be charged,” the woman said in a phone interview.