An Appleton man accused of doctoring his girlfriend's drink with an abortion drug in an attempt to kill her fetus had a warrant issued for his arrest today.
Thirty-4-year-old businessman Manishkumar Patel had posted a $750,000 cash bond to gain his release after being charged with seven felonies. They include attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child.
Sheriff's officials say Patel failed to show up at a day-report center yesterday as required under conditions of his bond.
Outagamie County Court Commissioner Maureen Roberts Budiac signed an arrest warrant today for felony bail jumping.
I predicted that Patel wouldn't be sticking around.
That was as easy as predicting the sun will rise tomorrow.
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Manishkumar Patel: "I didn't want it"
I think how one reacts to this story has everything to do with when one believes life begins.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Two weeks after a 39-year-old pregnant Kaukauna woman watched her boyfriend frantically mix something in an ice cream smoothie and give it to her, she miscarried.
Suspicious of her boyfriend's actions, Darshana G. Patel didn't drink the smoothie, but she had consumed other food and drinks he had been preparing for her since she announced her pregnancy. Now, thinking her boyfriend might have had something to do with this miscarriage and a miscarriage she suffered last year, she had the smoothie tested and contacted Outagamie County sheriff's detectives.
A lab test showed the drink was laced with RU-486, also known as the abortion pill because it can induce miscarriages. After a search of Manishkumar M. Patel's home in Kaukauna found more RU-486 tablets, the well-to-do gas station and convenience store owner was charged Thursday with attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child and eight other charges. Darshana Patel and Manishkumar Patel are not related.
In what could be one of the first cases of its kind, Manishkumar Patel, the father of her 3-year-old son, is charged with trying to get rid of her fetus by slipping the abortion drug into her food and drinks, authorities say.
Manishkumar Patel is being held in the Outagamie County Jail after Court Commissioner Brian Figy, who called the accusations "devious, diabolical and deceiving," set bail at $750,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport. A preliminary hearing was set for Monday.
According to the criminal complaint, Manishkumar Patel, 34, told detectives that he contacted someone in India, where he lived until he immigrated to Wisconsin in 1999, about how to end a pregnancy. The person suggested the RU-486 pills, which Patel said he had shipped to him from India, where the drug is less restricted than in the United States, the complaint says.
Patel is married to another woman, but he has had a relationship with Darshana Patel at various times since 2001. Both are from India and share a common cultural background. Manishkumar Patel told detectives he was confident the fetus his girlfriend miscarried Sept. 30 was his and that having children was her idea, the complaint says.
What a bizarre relationship!
Patel is married but Darshana Patel doesn't seem to have a problem with that.
She's had a relationship with Patel "at various times since 2001."
This sentence from the article stands out: "Both are from India and share a common cultural background."
What is that supposed to mean?
Does that common cultural background include adultery?
I doubt it.
In any case, their shared homeland and cultural background are irrelevant to the crimes allegedly committed by Patel.
He told investigators he "didn't need more babies" and said "I didn't want it" when detectives asked him about having another child with his girlfriend, the complaint says.
In arguing for a high cash bail, Assistant District Attorney Mark Schroeder said Manishkumar Patel has a green card to live and work in the United States, but he would be a risk to flee the country. Patel, who owns 14 gas stations, a hotel and other businesses in Wisconsin, estimated his net worth at $400,000, Schroeder said.
This guy is a successful businessman, quite a tycoon.
I do question the wording that Patel "owns" all those gas stations, a hotel, and other businesses. He must carry a lot of debt. If he owned those businesses outright he'd have to be worth more than $400,000. Still, he's not a bum.
When Patel learned his girlfriend was pregnant, he moved in with her and made her meals and tea, said Outagamie County Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Shortess.
"That was the only time he seemed interested in her, when he thought she was pregnant," Shortess said.
Obviously, Patel wasn't only interested in his girlfriend when he thought she was pregnant. He was interested enough to get her pregnant.
Shortess and sheriff's Sgt. Ryan Carpenter described Manishkumar Patel as manipulative and controlling of Darshana Patel, who bought the home her boyfriend was living in with his wife. Darshana Patel, who is a family physician, also purchased vehicles for Manishkumar Patel.
Why did Darshana Patel buy a home and cars for Patel?
The woman is a doctor! I guess professionals aren't necessarily the brightest bulbs.
...In addition to attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child, Manishkumar Patel was charged Thursday with second-degree reckless endangerment, placing foreign objects in food, delivery and possession of prescription drugs, stalking, burglary and possession of burglary tools, all felonies, and two misdemeanor counts of violating a restraining order that his girlfriend obtained against him.
Schroeder said attempted homicide charges were filed, rather than homicide, because the current evidence supports that charge. The case is ongoing, and more charges could be filed if additional evidence is found, he said. During Thursday's court hearing, Patel sat next to his attorney and held up his hands to partially shield his face from news cameras.
Defense attorney Thomas Zoesch said Patel denies all of the charges.
Darshana Patel became pregnant in August and told authorities Manishkumar Patel promised he would commit to her and they could live anywhere they wanted, the complaint says. She said he became attentive after learning she was pregnant and occasionally made meals for her at her home. On Sept. 17, she and Patel, with their son, went to dinner and stopped at an ice cream shop in Appleton for dessert.
According to the complaint, while she stayed in the car, Manishkumar Patel went to buy her a smoothie. She said she saw him through the window of the store, splitting the smoothie into two cups and stirring one cup frantically before giving it to her. She said she had an upset stomach and couldn't drink it, and when their son asked to drink it, Patel told him he could not, the complaint says.
The woman later looked in the cup and found powder in the smoothie, the complaint says. She took it to her office, refrigerated it and bought an identical one to put in her refrigerator. She noticed Patel later removed that smoothie from her refrigerator, she thinks, because he thought it was the smoothie he had given her, the complaint says.
On Sept. 30, the woman miscarried. A week later, she sent samples of the smoothie to a California lab, which confirmed the smoothie tested positive for mifepristone, or RU-486, the complaint says. She went to authorities Nov. 1, and more tests were done, which led to Thursday's charges.
What a weird case!
It's like a bad screenplay.
This case does highlight that weird thing about abortion.
Killing a baby by terminating a pregnancy is perfectly legal and considered by many to be socially acceptable. If the mother wants her baby dead, she can end her pregnancy, whether by RU-486 or through other methods. It's an empowering act.
But when another person succeeds in killing or attempts to kill an unborn child, then it's criminal.
It's not homicide when the mother kills her baby. It is homicide when someone else does, other than a doctor, of course.
Defining whether aborting a child is a crime or a choice hinges on whether the mother willingly ends the child's life.
Either way, the baby is dead and intentionally put to death.
I find these moral inconsistencies to be irreconcilable.
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Dr. Darshana Patel with her 3-year-old son, Shive, in the chapel at Elizabeth Ministry in Kaukauna. (Photo for The Post-Crescent by Wm. Glasheen)
Just a few days ago, the Post-Cresent ran a story on Elizabeth Ministry, citing Darshana Patel's loss.
Reading the piece, I was certainly left with the impression that the miscarriage was naturally occurring and there were no criminal elements to her story.
When Darshana Patel lost 14-week-old son Shankar to miscarriage a year ago Dec. 6, it was the loss of more than a dream.
"It's as if somebody cut your arm off or took away your limbs," said Patel, a Kaukauna physician and mother to Shiv, 3. "It was a nightmare for me in a sense. I woke up with contractions and bleeding and ended up coming to the hospital. But before I came to the hospital I had delivered my baby at home. So that was difficult."
The hospital helped Patel sort out some things, giving her only what she could handle at the time. Yet, in the grip of despair, figuring out what came next was a blur. With the gentle help of Elizabeth Ministry, Patel refocused "to do what a mom would want to do for her son," she said.
Since its inception in 1991, Elizabeth Ministry International has offered a safe haven for women to gather with other women in their special times of womanhood — the joys, challenges and sorrows of the childbearing years.
Founded by Jeannie Hannemann and the late Rev. Kurt Gessner while both served at St. Bernard Parish in Appleton, the ministry follows the example of the Bible's Mary and Elizabeth, who both found themselves pregnant in very unlikely circumstances: Mary, an unmarried virgin, and the elderly and infertile Elizabeth, her cousin. Mary went to Elizabeth's house for encouragement and support.
"What does a woman do when they need to talk?" said Linda Lamers, who is the Elizabeth Ministry coordinator at St. Katherine Drexel's St. Francis-Hollandtown location. "They usually call another woman."
That's why Mary turned to Elizabeth. And why Hannemann was there for Patel and for little Shankar, who was mourned in the Kaukauna-based ministry chapel for a week before being buried Dec. 13. For most Hindus, cremation is the ideal method for dealing with the dead. Infants, however, are buried rather than cremated.
"In the morning, I did the service on my own," Patel said. "I did chant my Indian mantra, and they let me do (the funeral) the way it came from my heart. There were no restrictions or requirements. … They were just there for me."
And they continue to be.
"Jeannie validated my feelings; I wasn't going crazy," Patel said. "She gave me permission to tell my story. That's how people mourn and how they heal."
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Manishkumar Patel posts bail.
APPLETON -- The Outagamie County Sheriff's Department has reported that Manishkumar M. Patel, 34, of Appleton has posted $750,000 bail and will be released from the Outagamie County Jail.
...[Outagamie County Court Commissioner Brian] Figy ordered him held on $750,000 bail after Assistant District Attorney Mark Schroeder said Patel, who runs service stations and other businesses, had a net worth of $400,000 and was a flight risk. Investigators had found an airline ticket in Patel's home for a flight that was scheduled to leave for Germany on Nov. 28, the day after he was arrested, Schroeder said.
"Flight risk" Patel will be released.
I doubt that he's going to be sticking around.
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