RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. -- A Riviera Beach man is accused of sexual battery on a girl.
Detectives with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office say 46-year-old Edward Patterson engaged in sex acts with the victim over a two year period.
The girl was 12 years old and in the 7th grade when the alleged contact between them began.
Detectives say Patterson would communicate with the victim through text messages and voice calls on a cell phone that he gave her.
According to an arrest report, the victim says she would meet Patterson near a gate at the rear of her school's parking lot and enter his vehicle, a black Dodge ram pickup truck.
She said his truck had tinted windows and that he would have sex with her inside the truck.
She said that on at least one occasion, Patterson had his daughter, approximately 2-years-old, in the truck during their encounter.
She explained to detectives that the incidents occurred most of the time in his truck, but one time it occurred in his house.
The girl says in that instance, Patterson put a movie on for his daughter and he proceeded to rape the victim in the bathroom.
In addition to his house and her school parking lot, the victim says they would also have sex inside the truck while it was parked in her apartment complex and one time in a Walmart parking lot in Lake Park.
The victim says Patterson started giving her money since July 2016 because, "he liked it so much he was going to start paying for it."
She described one incident where he paid her $40.
Detectives with the Computer Crimes Unit analyzed the girl's phone and revealed sexually explicit conversations between her and Patterson.
The investigator asked the victim if there were other incidents with other males and she disclosed two additional incidents.
One was with a boy she knew behind the REC center when she was 12 years old.
The other incident was with a boy she said is around 16 or 17 years old that Patterson sent over. She stated that Patterson communicated to her that the boy would be coming by and then the boy texted her and told her he was outside her house. She said the two of them had sex and that this occurred more than once.
Detectives made contact with the cell phone provider and received details on the cell phone's subscriber.
Detectives interviewed the individual, who said he did not know the phone number, but did remember buying a phone for Edward Patterson.
He stated Patterson is a driver for PalmTran and that they met on a bus.
He said he befriended Patterson and got him a phone because Patterson told him he was cheating and did not want his wife to find out.
He says he bought the phone and since that time Patterson pays for the phone service at the cellphone store.
Edward P. Patterson was arrested and charged with Sexual Battery (victim 12-17 years of age) and Transmission of Material Harmful to a Minor.
