A Tesla owner drove his family of four off a cliff in his Tesla, only to get away with some mental health treatment.
A California judge has officially dismissed all criminal charges against Dharmesh Patel, the 45-year-old radiologist accused of intentionally driving his vehicle off a coastal cliff with his family inside in 2023. The dismissal comes immediately after Patel successfully completed a court-mandated mental health diversion program.
In January 2023, prosecutors charged Patel with attempted murder after he drove his Tesla off a notorious 250-foot (76-meter) cliff known as “Devil’s Slide” along the Pacific Coast Highway in San Mateo County. His wife and two young children were inside the vehicle during the plunge. All four occupants survived the severe crash, an outcome that emergency responders at the scene widely categorized as an “absolute miracle”.
The Legal Requirement for Case Dismissal
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe confirmed that a county judge dismissed the case after tracking reports from Patel’s treating physicians. Over the last two years, Patel participated in a strict outpatient mental health diversion program under the direct care of a Stanford University psychiatrist and a local family therapist.
Under California’s active statutory guidelines, the court was legally obligated to drop the criminal charges once the treatment parameters were fully satisfied.
“The judge was required by the law to dismiss the charges,” District Attorney Wagstaffe noted. “If the person who’s given mental health diversion follows the treatment plan, there’s nothing that can be done, and at the end of the two years, he gets it wiped out of his record.”
Treatment Over Traditional Prosecution
The case shifted in 2024 when a judge ruled that Patel qualified for the state’s mental health diversion program instead of standing trial for attempted murder. Defense attorneys successfully argued that Patel was suffering from a severe episode of major depression accompanied by vivid hallucinations when the vehicle went over the edge.
The specialized diversion framework—which went into full effect under California law in 2023—allows certain criminal defendants with qualifying mental health illnesses to skip traditional trials and prison sentences in favor of structured, monitored medical treatment.
During his treatment period, Patel lived with his parents under tight constraints, including continuous GPS monitoring, the surrender of his driver’s license and passport, and mandatory weekly check-ins with the court.
Opposition and Future Legal Reforms
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s office had heavily opposed the diversion track from the beginning, arguing that the gravity of premeditated attempted murder poses too severe a threat to public safety to be eligible for record expungement.
Wagstaffe and several other California district attorneys are actively collaborating with state lawmakers to amend the current statute to explicitly exclude attempted murder from mental health diversion eligibility. “We’ll try again in the future,” Wagstaffe remarked regarding the legislative push. “We’re not giving up.”
