Family: Homeless Petaluma man who died struggled with alcoholism

The last time Warren Theuret saw his brother-in-law was in a glimpse out a car window several months ago.

He pulled up at a stop sign, looked out and saw Michael Lee Patton, 60, walking down D Street in Petaluma wearing jeans, a coat and boots. Theuret noticed Patton was walking in a straight line, looking ahead. He said he didn’t stop because he knew Patton would decline help, but took comfort in seeing him alive and well.

“I went home that night and called my son, who was closest to Mikey, and said, ‘I saw your uncle today. It’s nice to know he’s OK today,’?” Theuret said.

Patton had spent many of the past 15 years living outdoors, in and out of shelters and treatment programs for alcohol addiction before he died last week.

Remembered as a loving, kind man by his family, Patton died Dec. 16 from apparent natural causes after he was found lying unconscious on B Street. On Monday, a pathologist ruled out a head injury as the cause of his death, although an exact determination is pending toxicology tests, police said.

Patton was the eighth known homeless person to have died outdoors in the city of Petaluma so far this year, and the 21st since 2010, according to police reports. The startling series of deaths among the homeless has led police, advocates and others in the city to ask if there is a way to prevent such fatalities. Petaluma Police Sgt. Ed Crosby said that he has combed through all of the cases to look for similarities and has found that behind each case is a unique life story with common narrative threads often involving drug and alcohol addiction.

“My uncle was a great person,” said Jeramy Lowther, 43, of Ukiah. “He loved his family dearly. He was very loyal. He was an alcoholic who had a really hard time trying to find sobriety.”

Patton’s family said that the deck was stacked against him in attaining sobriety, although they all tried to help him at various times in numerous ways.

Patton grew up in Glen Ellen. His mother, Mary, worked at the Sonoma Developmental Center and his father, Don, was a popular barber who cut hair for many center employees.

Theuret, a site manager with Petaluma’s Committee on the Shelterless who kicked a drug addiction and homelessness 10 years ago, said Patton told him that he began drinking regularly after the Christmas Day many decades ago when his father died of cancer.

Patton was about 11 years old.

In his early 20s, Patton’s younger brother was killed in a vehicle crash.

Those losses took a heavy toll on Patton.

“He was still grieving the loss of his younger brother when I met him a decade later,” Theuret said.

Patton lived with his mother until his early 40s when she died, also of cancer. He had worked a range of jobs but was already deep into a dependency with alcohol that, according to Theuret, began interfering with his ability to keep a job.

After his mother died, his family bought him a home in Lake County, but Patton was unable to maintain taxes and pay other bills.

Even as the logistics of life continually slipped through Patton’s fingers, he remained doggedly loyal to his family. He talked about them with great pride, Lowther said.

“He was close to my children; he was close to my family,” Lowther said. “He and I grew up like brothers. We lived together for most of my life. I loved him very much. He was a very loving man, and unfortunately alcoholism was so powerful he just couldn’t stay clean.”

A sweet, contemplative man while sober, Patton became a loud talk machine when drunk, taking up all the space around him, Theuret said.

Theuret said that with an addiction that spanned the bulk of his life, Patton did not have a memory of a stable, sober time of life to help him picture another path. But he made at least two earnest attempts, including one that led him to find a job and home with the former St. Anthony Farm drug and alcohol rehabilitation center off Valley Ford Road run by Catholic Charities. He lived there for about a year until it was closed in 2008. Patton was devastated by the closure, Theuret said.

“It broke his heart,” Theuret said. “It was the first time in years that he had something going on in his life. That was it for him; he stopped trying.”

For Patton’s family, this will be another Christmas with heavy hearts.

“Christmas sucks this year because he is gone,” Lowther said. “My uncle was a great person.”

You can reach Staff Writer ?Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or ?julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.