Raped women at gunpoint.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Hiten Patel, the Atlantic City man facing 200 years in prison for sexually assaulting at least five women in the New Jersey coastal city in the summer of 2012, was convicted on 22 of the 34 criminal counts against him.
Patel, 35, was emotionless as the verdict was read out in court on Wednesday. A resident of the Egg Harbor Township, Patel’s wife and mother were present in the courtroom and cried uncontrollably as he was found guilty of his crimes, and now faces spending the rest of his life behind bars.
During the summer two years ago, Patel held numerous women at gunpoint and forced them into sexual relations with him. While his defense team argued that Patel was using a toy gun that had an electrical plug attached to the end of it, which supposedly made it look more realistic, it did nothing to mitigate the fact that he was still assaulting women.
Additionally, Patel was found to have paid close to 200 women for sex between 2008 and 2009. Many of the women he assaulted admitted during the trial that they were working girls, or prostitutes, and that Patel had hired them for services. But after their agreements were fulfilled, Patel would often confront them violently inside parked cars, point the gun at them, and assault them.
“This guilty verdict should serve as a reminder and deterrent of the grave consequences in store for individuals who seek to take advantage of vulnerable victims, especially women,” John Flammer, the assistant prosecutor on the team that convicted Patel, said in a statement. “Due to the brave women who came forward and faced their attacker, this defendant will now be unable to harm anyone else.”
Patel, who has been out on bail since his arrest with nothing more than a tracking anklet to keep him at bay, had that bail revoked upon his conviction. Patel fired his first defense attorney, James Leonard, Jr. after facing “insurmountable conflicts” with him. Initially, prosecutors offered Patel a plea deal that would have seen spend only 30 years in prison, but Patel rejected it.
His new defense team got Patel cleared of the charges involving one of the attacks, a woman identified only as G.H. for anonymity reasons. The judge refused to allow a charge of attempted sexual assault to be entered rather than aggravated sexual assault, so Patel was tried for the latter, more serious offense; he was acquitted of it.
The trial began on January 21, and was expected to last, at most, only about three weeks. Now that Patel has been convicted, all that remains is the sentencing, a date for which has not yet been announced.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com