Global Courant 2023-05-19 00:39:29
The wife of the California radiologist accused of deliberately driving his Tesla off a 100-foot cliff with his wife and their two young children earlier this year told authorities he threw them off the cliff “on purpose,” reveal new unsealed documents.
Dharmesh Patel, 41, was charged with three counts of attempted murder after he allegedly drove off the Pacific Coast Highway and over a cliff at Devil’s Slide in San Mateo County on Jan. 2. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in February.
Miraculously, no one was injured in the crash. The two young children were seven and four years old at the time of the incident.
Documents in the case unsealed Wednesday show his wife told authorities multiple times that her husband deliberately drove off the cliff.
She told a paramedic who helped extricate the family from the crashed vehicle that Patel “ran over the side of the road on purpose. She repeated this several times,” the filing said.
According to the court documents, Patel stood beside her and was coherent, but “didn’t say anything unless spoken to.”
A second paramedic at the scene of the crash said Patel’s wife was very concerned for the safety of her children. She told this paramedic that “the defendant deliberately drove the vehicle off the cliff and he tried to kill them all. She said this about three times.”
She also told a California Highway Patrol officer, “He drove off. He’s depressed. He’s a doctor. He said he was going to drive off the cliff. He drove away on purpose.”
The CHP also interviewed witnesses who observed the Tesla before it plunged off the cliff.
Two witnesses reported that the Tesla “accelerated” as it approached the cliff and none of the witnesses said the driver tried to brake before plunging off the cliff.
A nearby security camera also captured the moment the Tesla drove off the cliff. It showed the Tesla driving within the lines on the road, slowing down, then turning right onto the cliff.
“The Tesla then makes a gradual right turn and plunges off the cliff. There is no evidence of attempts to brake or steer the Tesla in a different direction,” the filing said.
The unsealed documents also shed light on what Patel said about the crash.
When interviewed at the hospital after the crash, “he claimed he had stopped to check his tire pressure, which the Tesla said was low earlier that morning,” the documents said.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Thursday that “we do not believe Mr. Patel’s statement is consistent with the facts.”
The unsealed documents also showed that when investigators asked Patel if he was depressed, Patel replied “not really.” But he said he felt down about “the war and drugs and crazy stuff.”
According to the report, officers spoke to Patel’s family. His sister said she spoke to Patel the night before and remembered him being “sad about the war and other things that were happening in the news”. He said he was worried about “his children’s future because of everything going on in the world.”
Authorities responding to the Tesla crash were stunned to discover there were survivors inside the heavily damaged vehicle.
Cal Fire officials said it was incredibly “rare” for anyone to survive such a steep fall. One expert described the family’s survival as “some kind of a miracle, given the severity of the impact”.
The white Tesla Model Y vehicle that Patel was driving was visibly crushed on all sides after it stormed off Devil’s Slide, about 20 miles south of San Francisco, on the morning of Jan. 2.
In the fall, the car overturned and landed on its wheels. Firefighters had to abseil to the scene, free the family and enlist the help of helicopters to get them to safety.
According to the unsealed documents, Patel’s wife was hospitalized in critical condition and spent more than a month in the hospital before being released to an outside treatment facility.
Their daughter suffered a broken hand and their son a wound to the back of his head, the filings said. After the children were discharged, they were placed in the care of the defendant’s sister.
Patel is due back in court on June 12 for a preliminary hearing. Two of the three attempted murder charges include special charges of domestic violence and intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
At the hearing, a judge will determine whether the prosecution’s evidence supports the attempted murder charges, Wagstaffe said.
In February, Patel’s attorney, Joshua Bentley, told a judge his client’s wife did not want her husband prosecuted. The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Wagstaffe said Thursday that Patel’s wife spoke to police after the crash and that “the next opportunity for her to speak on the matter will be the preliminary hearing.”
Emails and phone calls to Patel’s attorney went unanswered Thursday. No one answered Patel’s cell phone number Thursday.
