Two medical doctors testified that the man who drove his Tesla off a cliff along with his spouse and kids within the automotive suffered from main depressive order and was experiencing a psychotic break on the time of the crash.
The testimony got here Wednesday within the case of Dharmesh Patel, a Pasadena radiologist who was charged with three counts of tried homicide after he drove the household’s Tesla off the cliff at Satan’s Slide on Freeway 1 close to Half Moon Bay, in accordance with prosecutors.
On the time of the crash, the medical doctors testified, Patel was experiencing a psychotic episode wherein he believed that his kids is perhaps intercourse trafficked, in accordance with Dist. Atty. Stephen Wagstaffe.
Two medical doctors, Mark Patterson and James Armontrout, testified for the protection.
Patel is searching for psychological well being diversion in his case, which might permit for him to be launched from jail and placed on a therapy plan for 2 years. If he doesn’t commit one other crime or break any of the principles imposed when he’s launched in that point, the costs in opposition to him could be dropped.
Prosecutors oppose diversion within the case, arguing that the prosecution’s physician discovered Patel will not be affected by a significant depressive dysfunction with a psychotic function, however from a special dysfunction, generally known as schizoaffective, and that the protection’s proposed therapy plan won’t be efficient. Prosecutors consider the case ought to stay in court docket.
Wagstaffe anxious that if Patel is launched he won’t be monitored besides in his conferences with medical doctors.
“If he goes off his medicine, how have you learnt? It’s not like being on probation or on parole. It’s purely the visits with the psychiatrist,” he mentioned.
Patel’s lawyer, Joshua Bentley, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
