AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story contains information from court documents detailing allegations of sex crimes involving children. Due to the graphic and disturbing nature of these allegations, reader discretion is advised.

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WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Just days before the trial of Anthony Patterson is to begin, an emergency motion from defense attorneys reveals new details in the child sex crime case against him that could cause further delays.

Patterson, 47, of Wichita Falls, is the former president of a Wichita Falls automotive group who was first arrested in February 2021 and eventually indicted on 20 felony charges involving child trafficking and child sex crimes.

Patterson’s trial is currently set to begin on Monday, October 30, 2023, at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth, however, an emergency motion filed by his attorneys less than a week ahead of the trial date may cause yet another delay.

The motion was filed on Tuesday afternoon, October 24, 2023, by Patterson’s defense team, consisting of high-profile defense attorneys Toby Shook and Michael Mowla, former prosecutor Kim Laseter, and Wichita Falls attorney Chuck Smith.

In the motion, Patterson’s defense team requests the court to order Jandreana Bell of Vernon, a family member of the alleged victims and Patterson’s alleged co-conspirator, to surrender her cell phone to a specialist in order to extract potential Brady material, or information that could be favorable to Patterson’s case that was recently uncovered.

The motion said that on October 20, 2023, the Wichita County District Attorney’s Office notified Patterson’s attorneys of several pieces of information that may be helpful to their case, as they are required to do under the “Brady rule.”

According to the motion, the prosecution was made aware of two videos taken from Bell’s phone in which statements are made regarding Patterson’s case.

Potential new information revealed in Brady notice

Included in these videos are claims from a third party that Patterson paid the mother of Patterson’s alleged child victims $50,000. The video also included allegations that the mother of the alleged victims was aware of Bell taking the children to Patterson’s house and that she was okay with it.

According to the state’s Brady notice, Bell also alleged in the videos that one to two years before the incidents for which Patterson is set to go to trial, he began to ask her to bring children between the ages of 10 and 14 with her. In the video, Bell claimed that Patterson told her, “If they’re not under 16, don’t bother.”

The prosecution also disclosed  they discovered information contained in CPS records that could potentially hurt the credibility of the two child victims in this case, as well as a record stating the alleged victim’s mother “had tried to prostitute her in the past and made her sit in a hot tub with an old man.”

The state also disclosed a statement made by a staff member at Vernon Independent School District, where the two alleged victims attended school, who said one of the child victims told them about her mom and a friend trafficking her to two men in Wichita Falls.

Start date of Patterson’s trial may be in question

Patterson’s defense team argued in the motion that there is no way of knowing when the videos were created by Bell or if the videos given to the prosecution contain the full video or just a portion, so an extraction of Bell’s cell phone is necessary to answer those questions.

Many of the reported statements Bell made in the two videos contradict previous testimony in past hearings. They said an extraction of the phone could reveal more information contained on the phone that would clear up some of the inconsistencies between previous testimony and the allegations made in the videos.

The filing of Patterson’s most recent motion brings the trial date into question, as proceedings are set to get underway on Monday, October 30, in Tarrant County.

Though a continuance of the trial was not directly requested in the motion, an extraction of the cell phone would likely not be able to take place between now and Monday.

A hearing to address the motion is set to be heard on Friday, October 27, 2023, in the 78th District Court with Judge Meredith Kennedy presiding.