LAFAYETTE, Ga. – A former Chattanooga doctor charged with trying to sleep with children will not go to prison.
In a deal worked out last month between defense attorneys and prosecutors, Vikul Vinobhai Patel agreed to move back to India. In exchange, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Chris Arnt agreed not to prosecute Patel.
Patel was arrested in September 2012 on two counts of attempted aggravated child molestation, two counts of attempted child molestation and two counts of violating Georgia’s computer pornography law. According to a police report, Patel told investigators he drove from Chattanooga to Rossville because he thought he could have sex with an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old.
The lead investigator on Patel’s case, FBI Special Agent Ken Hillman, has been under scrutiny since early 2013. A task force member said Hillman had an affair with a woman and let her investigate “To Catch a Predator”-style cases like Patel’s even though the woman was not a trained officer.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice said two years ago they were investigating Hillman for a potential criminal case.