COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Mahendra Patrel spent more than a month in jail, charged with an attempted kidnapping he never committed. Now, he’s filing a lawsuit.
“Me and my family went through hell,” Patel told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
Last spring, customer Caroline Miller said Patel tried to take one of her young children inside an Acworth Walmart.
“No, no, no! What are you doing? He pulled him. I pulled him. We were tug of warring,” Miller said shortly after the incident.
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Patel spent the next 47 days in jail falsely accused of attempted kidnapping.
“What happened to Mr. Patel cannot happen in this country! It’s unacceptable,” Patel’s attorney Solomon Radner said.
Patel’s lawyers say the store’s security video showed that Miller’s children were never in danger.
Patel says Miller was on a motorized scooter and that one of her kids was falling off her lap. He caught the child and handed him back to his mother.
Patel’s legal team claims prosecutors and police knew this, but went after their client anyway.
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A federal lawsuit filed Monday spells it out, and Patel is demanding compensation.
“How much money is it worth to be facing decades in prison? How much money is it worth to have your name plastered all over the news as a kidnapper? So, your question is how much money? My answer is all of it,” Radner said.
Patel says he still can’t believe what happened to him.
“A simple trip in Walmart to get a Tylenol turned into a nightmare. I ran to get a Tylenol, and I got the biggest headache of my life,” Patel said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office and Acworth Police concerning the lawsuit.
In a statement from the City of Acworth late Monday afternoon, officials said they had not seen the lawsuit yet, but once it is received, they will provide a statement after a thorough review.
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