Criminal charges were dismissed for the Southern California radiologist accused of intentionally driving his family off the Pacific Coast Highway last year in a murder-suicide attempt after his successful completion of a mental health diversion program, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Dharmesh A. Patel was granted mental health diversion in 2024 after driving the family’s Tesla off a cliff near the Tom Lantos tunnels with his wife and two children in January 2023 and being subsequently diagnosed with major depression with psychotic features, Wagstaffe said. That was over the objection of prosecutors, who charged him with attempted murder and child abuse.
Now that Patel has successfully completed his mental health diversion program and went through a treatment program, he is legally entitled to the dismissal of all criminal charges under state law, Wagstaffe said.
Patel’s lawyer, Joshua Bentley, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Because Patel and all three of his family members survived the 260-foot drop over the cliff, he was charged with attempted murder, a crime that is eligible for the state’s mental health diversion program. Had any one of the family members died, he would have been charged with murder and been ineligible for the program, Wagstaffe said, adding that he feels that attempted murder should not be included in the mental health diversion program.
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“He has nothing hanging over his head for trying to intentionally kill his wife and children,” Wagstaffe said.
Wagstaffe said he believed that the testimony of Patel’s wife affirming she supported her husband and wanted him to come home played a role in the judge’s decision to grant him the mental health diversion option.
Although the mental health diversion law has been amended, excluding crimes such as human trafficking from the program, defendants with attempted murder charges are still eligible if they can prove to a judge that mental illness caused the alleged crime or was a significant factor in it.
“I do wish the law used more common sense,” Wagstaffe said. “Attempted murder, you have to intend to kill. Your intent has to be that you have to end the life of another human being.”
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