Wisconsin Investigators Using Financial Clues to Find Man in Forced Abortion Case
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 7, 2008
Appleton, WI (LifeNews.com) — Wisconsin investigators are using financial clues to follow the paper trail of a man involved in a forced abortion case who apparently fled the country. Outagamie County officials are using financial transactions to determine the whereabouts of Manish Patel, who is on trial for trying to force his pregnant girlfriend to have an abortion.
Patel, 34, stands accused of spiking his girlfriend’s drink with a dangerous abortion drug to cause her baby to die.
Darshana Patel, Manish’s 39 year-old girlfriend who is unrelated to him, was the intended victim along with her unborn child.
After he was charged in the case, Patel used $750,000 from family and business associates to post bail and is said to have fled the country back to his native India.
Sheriff’s Sergeant Ryan Carpenter tells the Associated Press that the financial clues don’t validate the theory that Patel fled to India as nothing substantial has come from the Asian nation showing he returned there.
Carpenter told AP that authorities have been in constant contact with his Wisconsin-based business associates and have learned very little about Patel’s location.
He said officials are following the incoming and outgoing transactions of Patel’s local hotel and convenience store transactions but wouldn’t volunteer any additional information or say whether the financial data has yielded more clues.
Last month, Outagamie County Circuit Judge John Des Jardins held a hearing where six relatives showed they are suffering a financial hardship because they lent Patel five-figure sums of money to go towards his bail.
Judge Jardins denied approving the return of some of the bond money to businesses associates. He said they have the option of filing lawsuits against Patel’s business interests to regain the money.
The relatives and business associates said they had no idea where Patel is currently located. The businessman has missed repeated court appearances over the last few months.
In January, Judge Jardins ruled Patel has given up the rights associated with the bail money.
Darshana has filed a request to have some of the bond money go to her to reimburse her for money she alleges Manish Patel took from her.
Criminal charges in connection with the case will stay open until he returns or is extradited back to the United States to face trial. He has been charged with attempted first-degree homicide of an unborn child, six other felonies and two misdemeanors.
Officials say Patel has attempted to contact Darshana repeatedly since fleeing.
Darshana never drank the concoction but turned it over to authorities after suspecting foul play. Tests revealed the presence of the mifepristone abortion drug.
The first crime is a result of a law pro-life advocates pushed for to provide protection and justice for pregnant women and their unborn children when they are victims of attack.
Wisconsin’s Fetal Homicide Law was enacted in 1998.
The law recognizes unborn children as separate victims when they are killed or injured as the result of violence directed toward the unborn child’s mother or the unborn child by a third party. The law applies regardless of the gestational age of the unborn child.
According to the National Right to Life Committee, 35 states recognize the unlawful killing of an unborn child as homicide in at least some circumstances. Some 25 of those laws protect pregnant women and their unborn children throughout pregnancy and another 10 offer justice only after viability.
Tom Zoesch was representing Manish Patel in the case, but the prominent attorney took his name off earlier in the case.
The abortion drug has been responsible for killing 13 women worldwide and injuring another 1,100 in the United States alone.
