SAN FRANCISCO– All charges against a radiologist accused of trying to kill his family in 2023 by driving his car off a cliff along the Northern California coast were dismissed by a judge after he completed a mental health program.

Prosecutors charged Dharmesh Patel, 45, with attempted murder after he drove his Tesla off a 250-foot (76-meter) cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway known as “Devil’s Slide,” injuring his wife and two young children. All four survived the Jan. 2, 2023, crash in what one official called an “absolute miracle.”

A San Mateo County judge dismissed the charges Monday after Patel completed a two-year mental health diversion program this week with a Stanford University psychiatrist and a family therapist, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

“The law required the judge to dismiss the charges,” Wagstaffe said.

In 2024, a different judge ruled that Patel would receive mental health treatment instead of stand trial after his defense attorneys argued that he was experiencing episodic major depression with hallucinations when he drove his family off the cliff and qualified for mental health diversion under California law that took effect in 2023.

“If the person who is diverted for mental health reasons follows the treatment plan, nothing can be done and at the end of the two years it is erased from their record.” Wagstaffe said.

San Mateo prosecutors unsuccessfully opposed Patel’s diversion.

Wagstaffe and other California district attorneys have argued that attempted murder should be excluded from eligibility for mental health diversion, and they are working with lawmakers to amend the law.

“We’ll try it again in the future,” he said of the law. “We will not give up.”

Patel’s attorney, Joshua Bentley, did not immediately respond to a message Tuesday seeking comment.

Patel, of Pasadena, was on a family road trip in the Bay Area at the time of the crash. After his arrest, he told a psychiatrist that he was depressed and had delusions that his children, who were 4 and 7 at the time, would be trafficked by kidnappers, Wagstaffe said.

Patel was held without bail until he was released in 2024 to complete an outpatient mental health treatment program. He then moved with his parents to San Mateo County and was monitored via a GPS bracelet. He had to surrender his driver’s license and passport, and had to check in with the court weekly.

Wagstaffe said Patel’s wife and children also moved to the San Francisco Bay area, and the court eventually allowed him to spend time with his family and take them for walks.

Patel’s wife testified that she had forgiven her husband and did not want him to be prosecuted. He said his children missed their father and wanted him to come home.

After the charges were dismissed on Monday, Patel walked to the courtroom gallery where his wife was waiting and the two left the building together, the Mercury News reported.

Months after his arrest, the Medical Board of California banned Patel from practicing medicine while he faced attempted murder charges. The board said Tuesday that Patel surrendered his California medical license in December.