Whispering Pines Elementary School Parent Held Nearly Five Months. Could He Sue Parents Claiming He Victimized Them?
BY: ANDREW COLTON | Editor and Publisher
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2025 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The West Boca Raton man charged with burglary, voyueriusm, and threatening a police officer — but accused of anti-Semitic behavior — is now free. Chirag Patel of Lake Serena Drive in West Boca Raton was released from the Palm Beach County Jail Tuesday afternoon. He’s been held since late August.
Patel was under scrutiny at the time of his arrest after a series of anti-Semitic posts to social media, posts about Whispering Pines Elementary in West Boca with references to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, and verbal altercations at Whispering Pines Elementary — the school his son attends. He was taken into custody on August 28th after an anonymous tip was received through a law enforcement app. The tip claimed Patel was seen looking into an area home and standing on property where he did not belong. While charged with burglary and voyeurism, he was never charged with anything related to Whispering Pines Elementary or his anti-Semitic posts.
That didn’t stop some parents of Whispering Pines Elementary School students from hiring a lawyer and making the bizarre claim that they were victims of Patel. Under the largely defunct “Marsy’s Law,” the parents claimed that they were entitled to protections as “victims” of Patel’s alleged behavior. But the parents were neither victims of burglary nor voyeurism nor threatening a law enforcement officer, the only charges filed against Patel. Turning to GoFundMe, those parents raised $15,000 to pay an attorney with the goal of keeping Patel incarcerated.
But the case against Patel was seemingly thin to start. When attorneys for Chirag Patel subpoenaed the people who claimed they witnessed or were the actual victims of Patel’s voyuerism and burglary, Jeffrey Warshaw, Robert Banuchi, and Gabriella Cabrera never showed for depositions — according to public records. The “mental health” hold, placed when Patel was first arrested, was ultimately only in place for days.
Prosecutors dropped the burglary and voyeriusm charges against Patel late last week. The only remaining charge is related to an alleged threat made by Patel to the deputy taking him into custody. Experts say it’s likely that charge will be tossed, too. Without the burglary and voyeriusm charge, Patel would have not been arrested, so the threat wouldn’t have been made. A hearing on that charge is set for March. And some legal experts now ponder whether Patel could have a civil claim against specific Whispering Pines Elementary School parents who publicly claimed that he victimized them.
