Cheers erupted inside a Cobb County courtroom Tuesday when a man accused of trying to snatch a 2-year-old boy from his mother’s arms at a busy Walmart was granted bond after spending 45 days in jail.
Mahendra Patel‘s case has garnered international attention in recent weeks, especially after surveillance footage from the store appeared to contradict allegations made by both the child’s mother and Acworth police.
The case has also generated outrage in Cobb County, where about 60 of Patel’s supporters, all dressed in yellow, squeezed into courtroom rows for the man’s bond hearing.
Dozens more were turned away at the door and told they had to watch the proceeding from an overflow room downstairs.
Cobb County District Attorney Sonya Allen, who has not returned requests for comment about the case, looked on from the jury box as Patel was brought into the courtroom in a bright green jail-issue jumpsuit, his hands shackled at the waist.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The retired engineer and father of two smiled as he turned toward the spectators, clasped his hands and bowed several times in gratitude after seeing the scores of supporters squeezed into the courtroom.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
His attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, said there were about 150 people who showed up at the courthouse. She showed Superior Court Judge Gregory Poole the store’s surveillance footage, which she said exonerates her client.
The judge agreed to watch the video for the first time over the objection of Chief Assistant DA Jesse Evans, who argued the case shouldn’t be tried at a bond hearing.
Before rejoining the DA’s office, Evans served as the chief of the Acworth Police Department, the agency that responded to the Walmart and brought the charges against Patel.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Patel has been in jail since March 22, days after Caroline Miller told police he tried to grab her son inside the heavily surveilled store along Cobb Parkway.
Merchant said her client was at the store buying Tylenol for his 86-year-old mother, who lives with him and has osteoarthritis.
She said Patel was simply trying to help Miller, who was riding through the Walmart on a mobility cart with her two young children.
Miller is not disabled, Merchant told the judge, but likes to “joyride” on the scooters with her children. She said Patel reached out to protect the child because he was concerned the boy might fall. She said the man is “friendly with everybody” and recently celebrated his birthday, turning 57 behind bars.
Credit: Courtesy
Credit: Courtesy
Miller said the two engaged in a “tug-of-war” over the child and feared Patel was trying to abduct her toddler. She later reported the incident to Walmart employees, who urged her to call 911 if she believed a crime had been committed, according to court filings.
But Merchant said Tuesday a Walmart employee who had been just steps away from the interaction told her he never felt the need to intervene.
“The video couldn’t be clearer,” she told the judge. “Mr. Patel did not try to kidnap this child.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Evans said Patel was initially charged with kidnapping but that attempted kidnapping was a more appropriate charge, and said that factored in to his office’s decision to “rush the case” to a grand jury.
He also showed a zoomed-in version of the surveillance footage which he said showed the defendant grabbing the boy and “tugging the child away from his mom.”
“You can see him tugging on the child, and there’s his legs, before the mom was able to regain control of her 2-year-old,” Evans said.
His explanation of the video elicited laughter from several spectators inside the courtroom.
Evans hinted that authorities suspected Patel, who has a prior federal fraud conviction, may have been intoxicated at the time of the interaction with Miller and her son. Merchant objected, saying there’s no evidence of that. Police didn’t speak with Patel until days after the incident.
Evans also noted that this was Patel’s fourth arrest.
“This mother was with her two kids minding her own business and this man, Mr. Patel, made the decision to grab a 2-year-old child from her lap,” Evans said.
Experts say stranger-on-stranger abductions are incredibly rare, and several former prosecutors who have reviewed the store’s surveillance tapes have said they can’t see where Patel committed any crime.
They also called it bizarre that the Cobb County District Attorney’s office rushed to indict the case, which prevented Patel from appearing before a judge for a probable cause hearing.
In a press release sent out after Patel’s arrest, Acworth police said they responded to the store March 18 after getting a call about a shopper who “attempted to snatch a juvenile away from their mother.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
There was a struggle over the child, authorities said, but the mother was able to “break away” with her son before Patel “fled the area.”
Acworth police watched the footage at the scene, and officers spoke with the mother at the store and later at her home before authorities swore out warrants for Patel’s arrest, according to an incident report.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Patel is charged with attempted kidnapping, simple battery and simple assault.
Poole granted Merchant’s request for a $10,000 bond, noting it’s been difficult to avoid seeing or reading about the case given the media attention it’s received.
He said he’s tried his best not to watch the local news or read about Patel’s case in the paper.
“It’s impossible to not see that it’s out there,” the judge said. “But I’ve done my very best.”
He said he didn’t think it appropriate to comment about how he felt about the video, but that he didn’t consider Patel a flight risk.
“He doesn’t have any type of conviction that bothers me in terms of any type of violent behavior,” Poole said. “If I thought he was a risk, I wouldn’t let him out of jail.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Elated spectators burst into cheers and applause before filing out of the courthouse.
“I’m very happy about the turnout and what happened,” said Hasmukh Patel, who made the 800-mile journey from Plano, Texas, to support his friend of more than 40 years.
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