{"id":269977,"date":"2026-02-06T02:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/269977\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T02:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T02:46:08","slug":"mental-health-diversion-granted-for-riddhi-patel-accused-of-threatening-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/269977\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health diversion granted for Riddhi Patel, accused of threatening city council"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The person accused of threatening members of the Bakersfield City Council in April 2024, Riddhi Patel<\/a>, was granted a mental health diversion<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kern County Judge Brownlee ruled that Patel is eligible and suitable for the diversion.<\/p>\n

The decision comes after several delays, including a second mental health exam in January<\/a>. The first exam was granted in Nov. 2025.<\/p>\n

Patel allegedly threatened the Bakersfield City Council on April 10, 2024<\/a>, saying, “We\u2019ll see you at your house, we\u2019ll murder you.” The threats were reportedly made in response to demands for the city to pass a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Officers booked Patel initially on eight counts of intent to terrorize and eight counts of threatening state officials for a total of 16 felony charges, later increased to 21.<\/p>\n

Patel was initially held on a $2 million bond, but that was later lowered, leading to Patel’s release on bond.<\/p>\n

\"FILE:FILE: Riddhi Patel. KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n

Patei is set to appear on March 6 for a status hearing and progress report.<\/p>\n

If Patel is approved and meets the court’s program terms, they could avoid jail time.<\/p>\n

In a case involving former Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner<\/a>, he was granted a mental health diversion in Dec. 2025<\/a>. Scrivner was initially charged with three felony counts of alleged child abuse and two felony counts of alleged possession of assault weapons. If he completes the program, his charges could be dismissed. That ruling was met with local scrutiny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Kern County Supervisor Zack Scrivner went to the courthouse for his felony arraignment Friday afternoon after he was faced with child abuse and gun charges. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n

SIMILAR: Former Kern County supervisor’s mental health diversion sparks backlash<\/a><\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n

The husband of Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez, Fernando Jara, was granted a mental health diversion in Nov. 2025<\/a> in a case involving a felony count for making criminal threats and two misdemeanors related to willful cruelty to a child and obstructing a peace officer<\/a>. Jara’s case could be dismissed if he completes the program.<\/p>\n

\"Fernando<\/p>\n

Fernando Jara, the husband of Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez, appeared in court Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to three charges against him. KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 The person accused of threatening members of the Bakersfield City Council in April 2024, Riddhi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-269977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}