STEVENS POINT — A 28-year-old hotel owner arrested in Wausau for soliciting a prostitute is facing accusations he intentionally damaged a competing hotel and had plans to place bed bugs at another competitor.
Dharmesh Patel’s mugshot first appeared in Wausau Pilot and Review on June 23, days after he was charged with soliciting. Patel sent numerous emails in July to WP&R claiming his case had been dismissed, even sending a mocked up court document that seemed to back up his claim. At that time, Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon confirmed that Patel’s case was still active.
On Aug. 18, Patel, who has previously served jail time for fraud and also has a criminal record of fraud, theft and burglary in New Hampshire and Illinois, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors that would have dropped the felony prostitution charge down to misdemeanor vagrancy if Patel had stayed out of trouble for a full year.
But on Oct. 5, Patel was charged again, this time in Portage County Circuit Court, after police say he cut copper water pipes leading to ice machines inside Country Inn & Suites on Division St. North. Patel owns the Baymont Inn in Stevens Point.
According to the complaint, Stevens Point police were called to Country Inn & Suites in the early morning hours of Sept. 30 after employees there reported pipes on the hotel’s second and third floors had been intentionally cut, causing water to leak onto the floor.
When police questioned Patel, who was seen on surveillance video footage at Country Inn & Suites, they saw that he wore the same shoes identified by witnesses and visible in the video, police said.
Investigators also learned that Patel allegedly tried to hire a homeless man to plant bedbugs at another hotel and was plotting damage at a third business.
Patel was released on a $10,000 signature bond and was ordered to relinquish his passport. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Sgt. Tony Babl at 715-346-1515 or provide information anonymously through Portage County Crime Stoppers at 888-346-6600.
