politics | January 04, 2026

Calif. Doctor Accused of Driving Tesla Off Cliff with Wife and Children Inside Pleads Not Guilty

A California radiologist who supposedly purposefully drove his family 250 feet off a perilous precipice has argued not liable to charges against him. Dharmesh Arvind Patel, 41, was accused of three includes of endeavored murder regarding the accident that elaborate his 41-year-old spouse and two youngsters, a 7-year-old young lady and a 4-year-old kid.

Two of the counts have improvements of aggressive behavior at home, incredible substantial injury, serious crime and earlier crime, as per San Mateo District Prevalent Court records recently inspected by Individuals. The third count has improvements of serious crime and earlier lawful offense. During a trial on Thursday, Patel entered a not-liable request, as indicated by ABC 7.

Nonetheless, San Mateo Province Boss Delegate Lead prosecutor Sean Gallagher said his office has proof proposing that Patel intended to drive his family off of the bluff.

“We accept the proof will show him deliberately driving his family off a precipice with the plan to kill them,” Gallagher said in a news preparation caught by the power source.

Head prosecutor Steve Wagstaffe expressed, as per KRON 4, that Patel’s significant other made “an assertion,” adding: “She said, essentially, this was not a mishap.”

In the mean time, an appointed authority has prohibited Patel from having any contact with his family, the power source detailed.

“That incorporates his better half and his two kids,” Gallagher said, per ABC 7. “That is private contact and afterward contact by him through an outsider.”

The examiner pushed for the decision considering aggressive behavior at home is a figure the charges.

“We believe it’s reasonable, both for the people in question and for the trustworthiness of the case, that there be no contact among them and the litigant,” he said.

A protection lawyer likewise said Patel’s significant other doesn’t maintain that he should be charged, as indicated by KRON 4.

In any case, Gallagher said that he intends to push ahead with the charges against Patel. “Whether or not she is agreeable, we accept we have adequate proof to demonstrate the charges without question,” he said, per KRON 4, it is a “extremely unique circumstance at whatever point you include this savagery inside a family setting to take note of that the case.”

Calif. Doctor Accused of Driving Tesla Off Cliff with Wife and Children Inside Pleads Not Guilty – People

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Patel is expected back in court on Walk 20. Whenever sentenced, he could look up to life in jail, ABC 7 detailed. He is being held without bail, as indicated by CBS News.

The CHP said in a past news discharge that it was cautioned of “a vehicle over the side of the bluff on SR-1” around 10:50 a.m neighborhood time on Jan 2.

When the CHP and other answering organizations got to the scene, they saw a white Tesla that had gone 250 to 300 feet over the bluff, the delivery said.

Specialists figured out how to arrive at the vehicle and recuperate the family, who were hurried “to a nearby clinic with serious wounds.”

The accident happened on a famous stretch of roadway known as Satan’s Slide in San Mateo District, close to Pacifica, along the popular Parkway 1, which runs the length of California’s shore. Satan’s Slide has been the site of various fatalities throughout recent many years. The California Interstate Watch expressed that in the wake of addressing observers and assembling proof at the location of the accident that “agents created reasonable justification to accept this occurrence was a deliberate demonstration.”

The 4-year-old kid experienced no wounds, and the 7-year-old had “critical” wounds and was released from a neighborhood medical clinic “decently fast.”

Patel’s lawyer didn’t quickly answer Individuals’ solicitation for input.