- Tuesday, May 21, 2024
The 43-year-old Dharmesh Patel from California’s Pasadena was charged with three counts of attempted murder in January 2023 after his act.
By: Twinkle Roy
AN Indian-origin radiologist who drove his Tesla car off a cliff in California, US, with his wife and two kids inside, was allegedly suffering from a major depressive disorder and had a psychotic episode when the accident took place, media reports have said.
The 43-year-old Dharmesh Patel from California’s Pasadena was charged with three counts of attempted murder in January last year after he drove his family off the cliff at Devil’s Slide on Highway 1 near Half Moon Bay, prosecutors said.
The family, including his wife Neha and children — a seven-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy — had a miraculous escape.
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A hearing was held last week in Redwood City, California, where two doctors testified that Patel was suffering from hallucinations, hearing footsteps, and believed his children had been sex trafficked at the time of the crash. The hearing was held in response to an earlier request from Patel who is seeking a mental health division in the case, the New York Post reported.
At the time of the crash, the doctors testified, Patel was experiencing a psychotic episode in which he believed that his children might be sex trafficked, Los Angeles Times newspaper quoted district attorney Stephen Wagstaffe as saying.
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The two doctors are Mark Patterson and James Armontrout.
Armontrout, a Stanford psychiatric clinician, will oversee Patel’s treatment if he is placed in the mental diversion programme.
Patterson’s diagnosis of Patel, on the other hand, came after 18 tests.
“I see him as someone who is very motivated and amenable to treatment,” Patterson, a psychologist, testified at the hearing.
The prosecutors, however, argued that their doctor found Patel to be suffering from a different disorder called schizoaffective and that the treatment plan proposed by the defence would not be effective.
They were in favour of the case remaining in court.
Wagstaffe was worried that post his release, Patel would not be monitored except in his meetings with the doctors.
“If he goes off his medication, how do you know? It’s not like being on probation or parole. It’s purely the visits with the psychiatrist,” he said.
Patel’s attorney, Joshua Bentley, reportedly did not respond to a request for comment.
(With PTI inputs)
