The former owner of a Richboro Dairy Queen pleaded guilty this week to groping a 15-year-old employee inside his office, nearly a year and a half after deleted surveillance footage of the encounter was secretly recovered by investigators. Parthkumar “Pete” Patel, 30, of Huntingdon Valley, entered guilty pleas to felony corruption of minors, misdemeanor indecent assault and tampering with evidence on Thursday in Common Pleas Court.
Patel owned the Dairy Queen on the 900 block of Second Street Pike in the Richboro section of Northampton Township, where the alleged assault took place on the night of March 20, 2025, according to Northampton Township police. Officers took the initial report of an indecent assault involving a juvenile female at the store at approximately 10:15 p.m. that night, the department said.
According to the probable cause affidavit referenced in PhillyBurbs, Patel had discussed a raise and a possible promotion with the teen, bumping her pay from $10.75 to $12 an hour, and asked her to stay later that night because of a free small cone promotion. Around 9:40 p.m., he called her into the office to discuss the paperwork, the same affidavit states.
What the Teen Said Happened in the Office
The employee told investigators that while she filled out a promotion form, Patel touched and massaged her shoulders and then slid his fingers inside her shirt above her left breast, on top of her bra, the affidavit says. She said she became scared and left the office. The PhillyBurbs account further details that a store manager at one point walked into the office and startled Patel, who removed his hands from the teen — only to resume touching her shoulders once the manager stepped back out.
Two managers told police they noticed the teen appeared visibly upset after she left the office and that she reported Patel had touched her chest, according to the same account relayed by the station. Northampton Township police corroborated that detail in their own release, noting that two managers observed the employee was visibly upset and that she told them what had happened.
The Missing Footage and the Forensic Recovery
When the two managers tried to review the office's surveillance footage after Patel left the store that night, they found the recording covering the time he and the teen were together had vanished, police said. Patel later told investigators he warned the employee after receiving a complaint from the Dairy Queen corporate office and even showed police a copy of that alleged complaint, per the PhillyBurbs report. He also claimed, according to the affidavit, that former employees had texted him about a false allegation and that surveillance recordings had gone missing before.
Patel denied touching the teen when police interviewed him, the crime watch bulletin notes. But investigators forensically examined the store's camera equipment and recovered the deleted video, which police said matched the employee's account. PhillyBurbs reported at the time that the recovered footage allegedly showed Patel massaging and caressing the girl's shoulders as she filled out the promotion form, then moving his hands to her chest area. Investigators also found that Patel had viewed the surveillance system himself after the teen left the office, according to the affidavit.
Charges, Bail and the Plea
An arrest warrant was issued for Patel on May 14, 2025, charging him with felony corruption of minors, two counts of misdemeanor indecent assault and misdemeanor tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, Northampton Township police said. He was arraigned before District Judge Brian Marriott, who set bail at $75,000 unsecured with conditions barring contact with the victim and unsupervised contact with any employee under 18.
On Thursday, Common Pleas Judge Raymond McHugh accepted Patel's guilty pleas to all three charges, PhillyBurbs reported. The judge deferred sentencing until 2027, and Patel remains free on unsecured bail. He faces a potential maximum seven-year prison sentence on the felony corruption of minors charge alone, according to the same report.
