Bail request denied for man arrested in police shooting

Bail will not be reduced for a Yuba City man charged in connection with the fatal shooting of his fiancee by police officers.

At his bail hearing Wednesday, Lionel Patterson, 51, said he was completely innocent and asked that his bail be cut to $5,000 or less and he be released on his own recognizance, according to the Probation Department report on the bail request.

Bail remains at $140,000 and Patterson is still in custody, a week after he allegedly held a handgun when he opened the front door of a Yuba City home to police officers just before they fatally shot 67-year-old Victoria Helen Roger-Vasselin.

"The court would never O.R. any defendant in this type of case," Sutter County Superior Court Judge H. Ted Hansen said.

Patterson's next court date is June 4.

Patterson said he has limited income and works for StoneMor Cemetery, selling cemetery products and providing family counseling.

He said he wanted to be released so he could see his mother and attend Roger-Vasselin's funeral today, according to the Probation Department.

Patterson faces felony counts of assault with a firearm and assault with a firearm on police officers. It's alleged he pointed a gun at a census worker after she tried to gain information from Patterson at the Yuba City home, according to the probation report.

Deputy Probation Officer Matthew Trezza said he tried to contact the census worker by telephone and in person but was unable to reach her.

Trezza also tried to contact the Yuba City police officers involved in the matter and was referred to Sgt. Chad Lizardo, who said the officers were on administrative leave and unavailable for comment.

Officers fired numerous shots at Roger-Vasselin, who allegedly held a shotgun in the doorway, pointed it at officers and refused to put the weapon down when ordered.

U.S. Census officials had called the Yuba City Police Department at 9:04 p.m. to report a shotgun was brandished at a census taker earlier that evening. Officers went to the home after 10 p.m. following a conversation with the census worker.

Patterson may have been drinking that evening, his attorney, Philippa Lauben, said in court Wednesday.

Patterson was placed on three years probation for a DUI in Nevada in 2000, according to the Probation Department report. He has lived in Yuba-Sutter since 2006.

Patterson told the probation officer that his mother is elderly, and he does not want to burden her with the stress of seeing her son in jail.

Sitting in a courtroom Monday, Patterson's mother burst into tears when he appeared via closed-circuit TV from Sutter County Jail, dressed in the bright yellow uniform of the jail's maximum security unit.

CONTACT Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.