Cobb Walmart footage appears to contradict attempted kidnapping claims

Patel, a 56-year-old real estate investor and father of two, has been locked up for 25 days after authorities charged the Kennesaw man with attempted kidnapping, simple battery and simple assault.

The case was quickly indicted, something defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant called a “tactic” on the part of the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office to avoid having an adversarial probable cause hearing. She said her client could remain in jail several more weeks before getting a bond.

In a news release nearly a week 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.”

Authorities said Patel approached a woman in an aisle, asked her a question about Tylenol and then tried to grab her son.

“The mother was able to break away with the juvenile and the suspect fled the area,” the department’s spokesman said in a release.

Footage from the store appears to paint a different picture, however. Patel is seen casually walking around the Walmart and even chatting with employees before leaving with the pain reliever he bought using his debit card. He also encountered the woman, Caroline Miller, a second time on his way to the register and appeared to show her the bottle of Tylenol he had found, Merchant said.

But an arrest warrant taken out by Acworth police accuses Patel of grabbing and pulling the woman’s child during their first encounter, prompting the mom to “wrestle” her son back. The video shows Patel reaching his arms out, but Merchant contends he was just trying to keep the child from falling off his mother’s cart.

The woman can be seen smiling after the encounter while speaking to another man who helped pick up her daughter off the ground. Video also appears to show the mom backing her scooter into a display near the store’s pharmacy.

Acworth police watched the footage at the scene, and an officer spoke with the mother at two locations before authorities swore out warrants for Patel’s arrest, according to an incident report. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to Miller for comment about the video, but has not yet received a response.

According to Merchant, Miller is not disabled and does not require a motorized cart. She said her two children like to roll through the aisles with their mother, calling it a “joy ride.”

She said the case is “insane” and accused the detective who obtained the warrant of taking “significant liberties with the facts.”

“He said that things happened that didn’t happen and got a kidnapping warrant,” Merchant said Wednesday. “Dude, this is not kidnapping.”

The charge was later downgraded to attempted kidnapping, which is still a felony, but Merchant said the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office still hasn’t agreed to a bond. As for the Tylenol, Merchant said it was for Patel’s mother, who lives with her son and his family.

Credit: Courtesy

Credit: Courtesy

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reached out to Acworth police and the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office for comment about the newly released footage and whether they think Patel’s charges are still warranted. It’s unclear if the grand jury that indicted Patel was shown any of the store’s surveillance video.

“We’re at the mercy of the DA’s office because they’re the only people who can dismiss the charges,” Merchant said. “Otherwise, you have to get in front of a jury.”

In a motion filed earlier this month, the DA’s office sought to keep Merchant from speaking about the case, saying it had “become a subject of scrutiny in the local and statewide media” and led to online harassment of the child’s mother.

In the meantime, Patel remains held at the Cobb jail. Merchant said a bond hearing is scheduled for May 6.