A source at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) has confirmed the transfer of a violent male offender to the facility following his conviction for bludgeoning an acquaintance to death. Kevin Patterson, who initially fled to Canada following the murder, attempted to use his transgender identity to avoid extradition to the United States.
Patterson, who often goes by the names Haedyn-Khris Beaumann and Rachel Patterson, was charged in 2014 with murdering Richard Bergesen, 57, with the help of a younger accomplice named Christopher Shade.
At the age of 19, Patterson, who was homeless, met Bergersen through Overlake Christian Church in Redmond. Out of sympathy for his situation, Bergersen offered Patterson a place to stay at his home in Sammamish, Washington. At the time, Patterson already had multiple convictions from offenses he committed as a teen.
“He looked like a very nice kid and Richard took him under his wing to help him… [Richard] was approached by a pastor from his church to help Kevin,” a neighbour would tell law enforcement after the murder.
According to Shade, he and Patterson beat Bergersen to death with a shovel while his hands and legs were bound. The two had reportedly only met the day before they committed the murder together.
The pair stole Bergersen’s money, credit cards and car before fleeing to the Canadian border, which was less than 3 hours away. Bergesen was found dead in his home with multiple skull fractures, and a police search was launched to locate his killers. Both Shade and Patterson were arrested the same day in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada after using Bergersen’s credit cards to go on a shopping spree and host a party at a local hotel.
Both were initially charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.
When questioned by police in Canada, Patterson admitted that he did tie up Bergesen and take his wallet but immediately attempted to shift the blame onto Shade, claiming the other had been the mastermind behind the plot.
Detectives on the case revealed in police documents that Patterson had confessed to the murder over the phone to a friend, saying he bashed Bergesen’s head with a shovel after rejecting the 57-year-old’s sexual advances.
Shade was quickly sent back to the United States as he had illegally crossed the border and ultimately pleaded guilty to second degree murder. During the hearings, Shade revealed that he and Patterson had originally planned to drug and rob Bergesen before fleeing to Canada. However, Patterson deviated from the plan at the last moment, taking a shovel from the garage and beating him to death.
But while Shade was being sentenced in the US, Patterson’s extradition case was complicated by the fact that he was a dual-citizen and had been born in Canada.
Patterson quickly began to fight against extradition in court, filing 8 motions in total in which he raised a number of concerns regarding his “safety” in the United States justice system, and fear of being subjected to the death penalty if convicted for first degree murder.
In his submissions to the court, Patterson shifted his claimed vulnerabilities multiple times, first arguing that had a difficult upbringing due to being of Indigenous heritage, then claiming he identified as a “transgender woman” named “Rachel” and would be at risk in an American prison.
“S/he is transgendered. This poses a real risk for her in jail,” Patterson’s counsel wrote in a submission to the court in 2018. “She says she simply doesn’t belong in a men’s remand [center], and increasingly I can see her point.”
Explaining why it took so long for his transgender status to be raised as a concern, his counsel suggested stigma was to blame.
“In short, it would seem that you have not been told the whole story – not through anyone’s oversight but from Ms. Patterson’s genuine fear of reprisal if her transgendered state (and state of mind) should be revealed. I must admit that my initial assumption was that Kevin was heterosexual. I was mildly surprised when he came out and declared himself homosexual.”
Patterson’s appeals were eventually heard before the Supreme Court of Canada but, in 2018, the decision to extradite him to the US was upheld. His counsel then fought for assurance that when extradited, his gender identity would be recognized and he would be given protections as a “transgender woman.” Patterson was finally released into American custody in June of 2020, where he was held at the King County Correctional Facility awaiting trial.
Patterson was convicted of first degree murder in 2022, and quietly transferred to the Washington Corrections Center for Women, where he now reportedly has a projected release date of 2040.
According to a source at the facility, Patterson has been “totally manipulating” other inmates and staff using his transgender status, and has reportedly said he wants to get someone pregnant despite identifying as a homosexual.
“He’s not even attempting to be ‘womanly’ at all,” the source says. “And he’s trying to use the trans issue to get sent back to Canada where he thinks he’d only have to serve half the sentence.”
Like other trans-identified male inmates, Patterson has made a profile on a website called “Caged Ladies,” which is intended to serve as a dating platform for incarcerated women.
In his profile, Patterson calls himself “Haedyn Beaumann” and describes himself as a “transgender individual” who is “non-binary” and “pansexual.” This is despite him previously identifying as a gay transgender woman while fighting extradition.
Patterson is just the latest known male to be housed at WCCW, which has seen a wave of transgender inmates be transferred in since 2021. Of the male offenders known to be at the facility, approximately 80% are serving sentences for violent crimes committed against women or children.
Earlier this year, Reduxx revealed that a violent male pedophile had been moved to the prison after beginning to identify as transgender. Jolene Charisma Starr, born Joel Thomas Nichols, was convicted in 1995 of two horrific attacks on young girls.
In July of this year, another male pedophile who was convicted of sexually abusing a 9 year old girl was also moved to WCCW. This is despite his history of violence against cellmates whilst being housed in a male prison.
According to an Incident Report obtained by Reduxx, the inmate, Christopher Scott Williams, was charged in 2012 after brutally attacking a man named Christopher Barrett while serving a sentence for failing to register as a child sex offender.