News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Nick Patterson’s friends know a compassionate, thoughtful and musically gifted young man. They have a hard time seeing him as the sole suspect in the arson fire that destroyed the new McDonald’s in Sisters on July 10.
Yet that is what he has become. The 23-year-old man was arraigned on Wednesday, July 20, on a first degree arson charge.
“He’s so kind and gentle; he’s really protective,” said his friend and musical partner Shane Simonsen. “That’s why it shocked so many people.”
One of those people was Charlotte Milam, a retired art teacher who met Patterson in 1997 when he was in high school.
Patterson was among a group of boys who participated in a musical program at Milam’s church and he rehearsed with them at her home.
“I couldn’t help but notice that Nick was a special boy,” she said. “I really liked him.”
Unlike many teens, Patterson seemed to enjoy interacting with adults, Milam said. He struck her as “quiet and thoughtful.”
Simonsen said Patterson is a gifted musician, able to blend a variety of styles and deeply move an audience. The pair had a regular gig at the now-defunct Barcelona restaurant in Bend.
Patterson’s attorney Jacques DeKalb told The Nugget last week that his client was to undergo psychological evaluation and that “there appears to be some prior history” that Patterson has experienced mental or emotional disturbance.
Simonsen says he can’t explain exactly what happened that led his friend to allegedly start a fire that gutted the interior of the McDonald’s building just weeks before it was to open.
But he acknowledged that the presence of the fast-food chain in Sisters bothered Patterson and his friends.
“A lot of people that I know had the same feelings about McDonald’s,” Simonsen said. “My impression was that he was hurt that they’d bring McDonald’s into his town because he grew up here.”
Friends talked about picketing the restaurant wearing cow suits.
“We had a lot of ideas... it was all in an air of joking,” Simonsen said.
“I can’t really understand why he took action,” he said. “In my life there are a series of checks and balances that would keep me from doing something like that.”
Simonsen said that he hopes for the best for his friend, should he be found guilty of a crime.
“I hope the environment he’s in for whatever time is a healthy one for him,” he said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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