Driver pleads not guilty to attempted murder in cliff plunge
A man accused of intentionally driving a Tesla carrying his wife and two young children off a 250-foot seaside cliff last month pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of attempted murder.
Dr. Dharmesh A. Patel, 41, stood quietly in the courtroom, showing little emotion while his attorney issued an across-theboard denial of the charges against the Pasadena resident. Patel’s plea came as he was handed a no-contact order forbidding him from communicating with his wife and children — all of whom survived the wreck.
Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands shackled, Patel spoke only to waive his right to a key evidentiary hearing within 10 days. His preliminary hearing was set for March 20.
Patel, a doctor at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, faces three charges of attempted murder and several sentencing enhancements in the Jan. 2 incident on Highway 1 near Devil’s Slide. In the passenger seat was his wife; in the back seat, his 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. First responders who were at the scene called it a “miracle” that everyone survived the crash after plunging nearly the length of a football field onto the rocky Pacific coastline.
“It is shocking and, frankly, when you look at the condition of the car and how far down it was, it is somewhat of a miracle that they survived and that there wasn’t more injury,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean Gallagher said during a news conference after Thursday’s hearing.
Patel’s wife, Neha, remains hospitalized, a prosecutor said Thursday. She has spoken to law enforcement officials, Gallagher said, though he declined to provide further details about her interactions with the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office.
The couple’s children have been released from hospitals and are living with relatives in the Bay Area. Several relatives of the Patel family were in attendance at Thursday’s hearing, though they left the courtroom quickly without issuing any statement.
The no-contact order was a departure from an earlier hearing last week when a judge denied prosecutors’ request to ban all communication between Patel and his wife and children, instead issuing a less-restrictive “no harassment” order.
In arguing to allow Patel to continue talking to his wife and children, defense attorney Josh Bentley argued that “a witness” — presumably Patel’s wife — did not wish for the case to be prosecuted.
But prosecutor Dominique Davis countered that it “is not a new fact” that victims of domestic violence often do not wish to for authorities to pursue charges against their abusers.
The crash elicited shock among neighbors of the family’s home in an upscale Pasadena cul-de-sac, leaving many of them to openly question why a successful doctor whose family was a fixture in the community would attempt something so brazen and tragic.
Investigators have attempted to speak with other family members to help determine why Patel wanted to kill himself and his family while they were visiting Bay Area relatives over the holidays, San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said at a previous hearing. But so far, investigators have been rebuffed in those efforts, he said.
Investigators said that the crash was believed to be an intentional act and not caused by the Tesla’s selfdriving features.
One clue, they said, came in video footage pulled from a camera perched atop the Tom Lantos Tunnel. The footage showed that after Patel exited the tunnel, he continued uphill, then made two right turns — one into a wide dirt shoulder and another sharp swerve right over the cliff, Wagstaffe said after a previous hearing.
Neha Patel also was found by paramedics “screaming” about her husband’s “intentionality,” Wagstaffe said, though he has declined to explain exactly what she said.
Thursday, Gallagher declined to offer further details about any other possible evidence suggesting that Patel tried to intentionally kill his family — noting that “it’s the beginning of the investigation.”