The Northampton Township Police Department announced the arrest of Parthkumar “Pete” Patel, 30, a Huntingdon Valley resident who is accused of indecent assault of a juvenile female at a Dairy Queen located at 922 Second Street Pike in Richboro on March 20.
According to the report, the female victim is an employee at the restaurant, which is owned by Patel. She told police she was called into Patel’s closed office to discuss an employment issue, at which point he had her sit in a chair to fill out forms.
While completing the forms, Patel reportedly began massaging her shoulders and subsequently placed his hand down her shirt and onto her upper breast area. As she left the office, two managers saw that she was visibly upset. After she told them what happened, one of her parents picked her up and called the police.
A Northampton detective interviewed the managers, one of whom stated that he went into the office after the victim had departed to review the surveillance video but found that the timeframe when the owner and the female were in the office was missing from the surveillance system.
During an interview with the detective, Patel denied assault allegations and said that the surveillance footage had “disappeared” from the system. The DVR/recorder was forensically analyzed to recover the deleted video, which confirmed the victim’s report.
On Wednesday, May 14 an arrest warrant was issued for Patel with the following charges:
- Corruption of Minors
- Felony 3rd degree (1 count)
- Indecent Assault; Misdemeanor 2nd degree (2 counts)
- Tampering With or Fabricating Physical Evidence
- Misdemeanor 2nd degree (1 count)
Patel was arraigned with bail set at $75,000, police said. As conditions of the bail, he is to have no contact with the victim and no unsupervised contact with any employee under the age of 18.
Anyone with additional information regarding this case or a related incident is asked to contact the Northampton Township Police Department at (215) 322-6111 and ask for Detective Gross.
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.
Photo: NTPD