Prosecutor details 'disturbing' attack of CNBC employee in Bergen County
A Piscataway man accused of stabbing a CNBC employee in what prosecutors say was a "disturbing" attack will remain in jail while he awaits a determination from a grand jury.
Harshkumar Patel, 29, was arrested by police over the weekend after he violently attacked a 30-year-old woman who was leaving the CNBC building in Englewood Cliffs at the end of the day on June 14, according to police. Patel is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons possession.
During the detention hearing before Judge Vincent Militello on Thursday, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Anthony Talarico laid out the "disturbing set of circumstances" regarding the attack. During his argument that Patel should be detained, Talarico said Patel had no connection with the two employees attacked at CNBC and they only seemed targeted because of their affiliation with the media company.
According to Talarico, evidence shows that Patel scoped out the CNBC headquarters a month before the attack. In addition to the victim who was stabbed, Patel is accused of ramming his vehicle into another CNBC employee's car at 40 mph before the stabbing and just outside of the main campus. This employee, an on-air personality with the company, took a picture of Patel's license plate.
"She couldn't get out of the car and lucky for her that she did not because this particular defendant was armed with a knife," Talarico said.
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The prosecutor said after the car ramming, Patel returned to the CNBC headquarters where he pulled up behind a woman sitting in her vehicle at a traffic light. According to Talarico, Patel exited his car and asked the woman if she worked at CNBC. When the woman replied yes, Patel reached through the driver's side window and stabbed the woman in the chest and arm five or six times before she was able to drive away. Talarico said there was video surveillance footage that showed the attack.
Talarico also pointed to a separate act of violence the next day when he took a hatchet to a car at his place of employment.
"This is just two incidents, judge, where this individual has engaged in extraordinary and explosive behavior," Talarico said. "Really for no reason whatsoever in two different locations in the state."
Talarico said Patel is clearly "unstable" and has "extreme, violent outbursts for seemingly no reason" and that the victims involved in the case were highly concerned and "terrified."
Patel's attorney, Louis Keleher, argued that his client should be subject to level three monitoring and home detention instead of being detained in jail and that Patel would show up for all of his court hearings.
Despite Keleher's argument for home detention, Militello said Patel had "incredible angst, anger, vitriol" or "animosity" against employees of CNBC. Militello said not only Patel's actions showed that but also his words.
The judge said he had a hard time envisioning any monetary or nonmonetary conditions he could set that would ensure the safety of the community or the victims and that he didn't believe anything he told Patel would result in him listening to him.
Patel has seven days to appeal Militello's decision.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Englewood Cliffs NJ stabbing suspect remains jailed
