Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 24, 1995                   TAG: 9501240100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

FORMER STATE OFFICIAL GIVEN SUSPENDED PRISON TERM

As part of a plea agreement with the state Attorney General's office, Patterson entered an Alford plea on the felony charge. In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains his innocence but admits that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict him.

``I apologize for the inconvenience to the commonwealth ... and I take full responsibility,'' Patterson told Judge Thomas N. Nance.

Prosecutors dropped two other felony charges of misappropriating state funds, three of conspiring to misappropriate state funds and two misdemeanor charges of falsifying public records. The other charges included approving state funds for a personal trip to Boston in July 1993 and $710.03 for a personal move in March 1993 by his administrative assistant, Constance Payne.

Patterson, 47, of Richmond, agreed not to seek elected or appointed public office for five years. Nance also sentenced him to 80 hours of community service.

Patterson was appointed to the director's job by former Gov. Douglas Wilder. He was fired in October 1993 following allegations of financial improprieties and mismanagement of a renovation of a state office building in Richmond. He now has a business development consulting firm.

Prosecutor John Russell said problems with Patterson's travel expenditures were discovered in 1993 when a departmental airline travel card was canceled because of an outstanding balance.