Sgt. Brian Moore/San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office/Associated Press
- The wife of a man accused to driving his family off a cliff in a Tesla doesn’t want him prosecuted.
- A domestic violence expert told Insider this type of behavior in victims is not uncommon.
- Prosecutors handling the case are treating it like a domestic violence case, a local DA said.
The wife of a California doctor accused of purposely driving his Tesla off a 250-foot cliff with his family inside screamed out to responding medics that her spouse “tried to kill” them — but her husband’s lawyer said in court last week that she doesn’t want him to be prosecuted.
A domestic violence expert and the local district attorney handling the case told Insider on Tuesday this type of behavior in victims is not uncommon.
There are both “psychological reasons” and “real world circumstances” like family pressures or economic dependence that typically lead domestic violence victims to stop cooperating with authorities, said Dorchen Leidholdt, the director of the Center for Battered Women’s legal services at Sanctuary for Families in New York.
“Understanding why victims stop cooperating is very, very important,” Leidholdt told Insider. “To understand that, I think we need to understand that there’s psychological reasons in many cases that involve traumatic bonding with the abusive, intimate partner.”
The Stockholm Syndrome-like condition can occur when “there’s been a pattern of power and control, often abuse, punctuated by reward,” said Leidholdt.
Additionally, there frequently are “real world pressures placed on victims often by the abuser’s family and friends” and possibly even the victims, Leidholdt said.
Every year, Sanctuary for Families serves more than 7,000 survivors of gender-based violence, and Leidholdt said she’s seen “many cases” where a victim will initially cooperate with an investigation and even testify before a grand jury then stop cooperating.
“That is very, very common,” Leidholdt said as she added that “prosecutors are very familiar with that situation” and often have to turn to expert witnesses at a trial to explain to a jury the likely reasons behind a victim’s refusal to cooperate.
Local district attorney is treating case as domestic violence
Dharmesh Patel, 41, pleaded not guilty last week to three attempted murder charges after he was accused of intentionally driving a Tesla off the notorious Devil’s Slide cliff in Northern California with his wife and two kids, ages 7 and 4, inside on January 2.
Patel, a radiologist at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, and the passengers miraculously survived the wreck and were rescued via helicopter.
The suspect’s wife, Neha Patel, shouted out to responding paramedics that her husband “tried to kill us” and that “he intentionally drove over the cliff,” Wagstaffe told Insider.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told Insider that his office is “viewing” the case as a domestic violence case. Prosecutors have no evidence of prior domestic violence, he said.
But Dharmesh Patel’s defense attorney, Josh Bentley, said in a courtroom last week that Neha Patel — a key witness in the case — does not want her husband prosecuted, NBC Bay Area reported.
Wagstaffe told Insider that while it’s not “helpful” to the prosecution to not have the wife as a witness, prosecutors believe there is enough evidence to move forward with the case.
“This is not uncommon, even though this case is very uncommon,” Wagstaffe said of the wife’s lack of cooperation with authorities.
According to Wagstaffe, “We have found, as I think most counties in the state have found, is that around 75% to 80% of our domestic violence cases, the victim does not want the case to go forward.”
“It can be because in the core of it, [the victims] still love the person. It can be, in many cases, ‘How am I supposed to live?’ What do I do to survive,'” Wagstaffe said. “Which one of those things is motivating Mrs. Patel, I cannot speak to, but it is not something that we’re not used to.”
“I’m told that the Patel family, this is very important to them. This is a matter of cultural shame to them, I guess,” Wagstaffe added. “And that plays a role.”
San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Wagstaffe said that his office believes that under California law, Neha Patel’s statement to medics at the scene will be admissible in court.
The district attorney called this “important” because “that may be the only words we get from her.”
In addition to the evidence of surveillance footage that captured the Tesla making two “sharp turns” before it plunged off the cliff, prosecutors are awaiting an in-depth report from California Highway Patrol, which is working with Tesla on the matter, Wagstaffe said.
“We’re hoping that when their reports are done, that the car can give us some information,” he said, adding that there is a possibility the Tesla could show a mechanical failure.
“If suddenly they come back, and they say, ‘We had a car malfunction here in some fashion,’ well, that changes the playing field for us,” Wagstaffe said.
However, Wagstaffe said, “I’ve seen the [surveillance] video. These are two very sharp turns. It’s not a drifting off of the cliff. It’s two right-hand turns.”
Dharmesh Patel’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Tuesday.
