Dharmesh Patel was a respected radiologist who appeared to live an idyllic family life in a peaceful Pasadena cul-de-sac.
Then in 2023, he drove his Tesla, carrying his wife and two children, off a 250-foot cliff in Northern California in an attempt to kill them all, prosecutors alleged.
Multiple psychologists diagnosed him with major depressive disorder after the crash, and in 2024 his defense attorney convinced a San Mateo County Superior Court to grant him entry to a mental health diversion program in lieu of continuing to pursue criminal charges against him.
On Monday, the three attempted murder charges filed against Patel, who is now 45, were dismissed as he had complied with all terms of the two-year program while living with his parents in Belmont, according to the San Mateo County district attorney’s office.
The fact that Patel has no criminal record and is not required to be on probation stings for San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Stephen Wagstaffe, whose office had opposed the fun of the case.
“We felt that the crime was way too serious, and allowing amusement for someone who had, with premeditation and deliberation, planned to kill his two small children and his wife, as well as himself, was not good for public safety,” Wagstaffe told The Times on Tuesday.
Emergency responders said it was miraculous that Patel, his wife, Neha, and their son and daughter, who were 4 and 7 years old at the time, all survived the January 2023 crash, when he drove off an area of Pacific Coast Highway known as Devil’s Slide. Neha told paramedics that her husband had intentionally tried to kill the family.
Investigators look at the wreckage of a Tesla that plunged off a Northern California cliff in January 2023.
(Sgt. Brian Moore / San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office)
The court’s decision to dismiss the charges Monday was essentially automatic as Patel had followed all the requirements of his diversion program, which included regularly seeing a psychiatrist and family therapist and frequently checking in with the court to provide updates on his treatment progress, Wagstaffe explained.
“I have complied with the conditions,” Wagstaffe said. “There was no basis whatsoever for the prosecutor to somehow object and say no to it.”
Patel was held in jail from the crash in January 2023 until he was granted entry into the mental health diversion program in August 2024.
In 2024, doctors testified that Patel was suffering a psychotic break due to major depressive disorder when he took a swift right turn and plunged off the cliff. Wagstaffe previously told The Times that Patel was alarmed by the state of the world and worried about his children being sex-trafficked.
Before the crash, Patel worked as a radiologist at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.
In the months following the incident, the California Medical Board secured a court order preventing him from practicing medicine while he was facing attempted murder charges. Then in November, Patel signed a stipulated surrender of his medical licenseafter a ruling by the board that he had engaged in unprofessional conduct by willfully causing harm to his family.
The board did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday on whether Patel would be eligible to reapply for a license now that the charges against him had been dismissed.
California established mental health fun in 2018 to prioritize treatment over punishment for eligible defendants whose mental illness contributed to their alleged offenses. Certain extreme crimes — such as murder, rape and sex abuse of a child under 14 — are not eligible for fun.
Since then, opposition to the program has grown, with detractors pointing to examples of people entering fun and then going on to commit more serious crimes.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 46 into law, which tightens the rules around diversion by giving judges greater ability to deny diversion petitions when they believe the defendant poses a risk to public safety.
The initial draft of AB 46 had also proposed excluding attempted murder charges from the diversion program, but this language was later removed during revisions.
Wagstaffe said Tuesday that he found it hard to understand that if the crash had killed anyone, Patel would be facing a possible 25 years to life sentence for first-degree murder. But instead, Patel is walking free after spending two years living with his parents and participating in therapy.
“Wow, boy, did he get the break of breaks,” Wagstaffe said. “I hope he takes advantage of it.”
Times staff writers James Queally and Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.
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