Mahendra Patel Sues City, Police, Mother Over Walmart Kidnapping Accusation

India-West News Desk

ATLANTA, GA – “I went to get Tylenol and got the biggest headache of my life,” Mahendra Patel told a press conference on February 9, recalling the day last year, when he walked into an Acworth Walmart and ended up in jail on felony charges that were later dismissed.

Patel, 57, a retired engineer and father of two, is now suing the woman who accused him of trying to abduct her 2-year-old son, along with Cobb County District Attorney Sonya Allen, the city of Acworth, the lead detective who charged him and the DA’s investigator who presented the case to a grand jury.

Patel spent more than six weeks behind bars after being accused of attempting to snatch a toddler from his mother inside the busy store. The charges were ultimately dropped last year.

The complaint names Caroline Miller, the child’s mother, as well as the detective involved in the arrest and investigator Temperance Stoddard, who helped present the case to a Cobb County grand jury.

Patel said he was pulled over and arrested at gunpoint days after Miller reported to police that he had tried to grab her son while she rode a motorized scooter with two children on her lap inside Walmart. He has consistently maintained that he was only trying to help.

Surveillance footage from the store, later released by Patel’s former attorney, appeared to contradict the mother’s account and, Patel said, “changed the narrative” of the case. “It saved my life,” he said of the video.

Still, Patel remained jailed without bond for weeks. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that his attorney, Solomon Radner said the case was indicted so quickly that no probable cause hearing was held. Radner alleged that police and the DA’s investigator had access to the surveillance video early on but did not show it to the grand jury.

Patel’s lawsuit alleges malicious prosecution and violations of due process. He contends that the ordeal caused lost wages, emotional distress and severe damage to his reputation. After his arrest, Radner said, Patel’s image was widely circulated in news reports labeling him a kidnapper.

Patel is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorneys’ fees, as he attempts to clear his name after what he described as “a nightmare.”