Adele V. Patterson
About Adele
Adele V. Patterson has been practicing criminal defense in Connecticut for over 35 years, with a focus on appeals and post-conviction litigation. She is recognized as one of Connecticut’s top criminal defense appellate lawyers. Adele has won several landmark cases that have improved fairness in Connecticut criminal trial procedures and given many people opportunities to reduce lengthy prison sentences. She has successfully achieved the reversal of numerous unlawful convictions.
Adele began her career as a criminal defense trial lawyer in Connecticut state and federal courts before transitioning to habeas corpus cases and later to a mix of appeals and habeas corpus matters. She approaches her clients and their legal problems with respect, compassion, and a deep knowledge of how the law and facts may best be wielded to achieve the best results.
As an appellate lawyer, Adele had success in litigating trial court motions, contributing to good outcomes and making the record for appeal. Among her notable achievements, she achieved suppression of kilos of cocaine in a federal property forfeiture case — for lack of probable cause — and a motion to suppress kilos of marijuana seized under a warrant for the wrong address, in a Connecticut trial court, which she successfully defended on appeal. Her Fourth Amendment specialization now extends to the complexities of electronic searches and seizures such as those involving cell phones.
Early in her career, working in a small Bridgeport law firm, Adele tried and co-chaired criminal matters in the US District Court in Connecticut. She worked on sentencing issues in high-profile cases and was appointed counsel in criminal matters and appeals to the Second Circuit. During her time with the firm, Adele gained valuable experience in a variety of civil litigation.
Adele went on to spend 25 years working in Connecticut’s Office of the Chief Public Defender, serving in the Habeas Corpus Unit, Legal Services (Appellate) Unit, and the Capital Defense and Trial Services Unit. In these roles, she tried numerous habeas corpus cases, handled many habeas corpus appeals, and represented convicted people on appeal from all manner of criminal convictions, including capital felonies. From 2005 to 2009, Adele served as the acting Chief of the Habeas Corpus Unit before gladly returning to representing clients on appeal. By the time she cofounded Brown & Patterson, Adele had argued more than 70 criminal and habeas corpus appeals.
During her time in the Legal Services Unit, Adele also co-taught the University of Connecticut School of Law Criminal Defense Appellate Clinic as a special adjunct professor from 2016 to 2021. She previously taught the Quinnipiac University School of Law Criminal Defense Appellate Clinic in the 2004–05 and 2014–15 academic years, in partnership with the Public Defender’s Office.
Adele worked her way through college, graduating from Brown University with a BA in History in 1985. She earned her Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1989. After her first year of law school, she worked in the criminal defense appellate clinic during the summer, where she and a fellow student, under faculty supervision, obtained the exoneration of a woman wrongfully convicted of a crime. This experience led Adele to a career focused on the human consequences of enforcing constitutional criminal procedure which she is pleased to continue through the law firm of Brown & Patterson.
Admissions
- Connecticut
- US District Court, District of Connecticut
- Second Circuit Court of Appeals
- Supreme Court of the United States
Selected criminal appeals
State v. Lyons, 203 Conn. App. 551 (2021) – defending her trial court win suppressing narcotics for defective warrant
State v. Ashby, 336 Conn. 452 (2020) – former capital conviction reversed where State’s reliance on jailhouse informant violated defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel; Massiah violation proved by appellate counsel team in extensive litigation to rectify the record
State v. Riley, 315 Conn. 637 (2015) – juvenile sentencing procedure of Miller v. Alabama applies to de facto life sentence imposed in court’s discretion
State v. Kalphat, 134 Conn. App. 232 (2012) – evidence insufficient to prove possession of marijuana with intent to sell within 1,500 ft of school under correct statutory interpretation
State v. DeJesus, 92 Conn. App. 92 (2005) – court improperly submitted uncharged offense to jury, and jury could have convicted on uncharged crime; appeal dismissed, 282 Conn. 783 (2007), certification improvidently granted
State v. Cortes, 84 Conn. App. 70, aff’d., 276 Conn. 241 (2005) – trial court may not refer to a complainant as the victim in front of the jury when commission of a crime is in dispute
Selected habeas corpus appeals
Gilchrist v. Commissioner, 334 Conn. 548 (2020) – first interpretation of habeas corpus procedural statute; reversing Appellate Court decision at 180 Conn. App. 56
Hinds v. Commissioner, 151 Conn. App. 837 (2014), aff’d, 321 Conn. 56 (2016) – makes a new and narrowed definition of the crime of kidnapping available to challenge convictions before the change
H.P.T. v. Commissioner, 127 Conn. App. 480 (2011) – counsel ineffective in advising defendant as to plea bargaining; rev’d in part, 310 Conn. 606 (2013), trial court, not habeas court to accept and effectuate terms of original plea offer
Luurtsema v. Commissioner, 299 Conn. 740 (2011) – narrowed definition of kidnapping applies in habeas corpus cases
James L. v. Commissioner, 245 Conn. 132 (1998) – right to effective assistance of counsel in connection with access to sentence review procedure cognizable in habeas case