A woman who initially reported being attacked while jogging in a Chula Vista park testified June 23 it was her husband who attacked her and not two strangers, as she initially told police.
The woman testified for three hours and identified her husband, Vicky Nikhil Pathak, 23, as the man who injured her even before she told Chula Vista Police that two men attacked her in March at McCandliss Park on East J Street.
The woman was hospitalized for her injuries, but doctors noticed that some injuries were older than the ones she claimed happened in the park.
She was the lone witness in the preliminary hearing conducted by Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sontag, who ordered Pathak to stand trial on charges including torture, spousal abuse, false imprisonment, felony assault and battery with serious injury.
Deputy District Attorney Claudine Ruiz said Pathak could face a life term in prison if he is convicted on the torture charge.
Ruiz said the victim had extensive bruising all over her body and had been hit with a wire hanger.
The woman said Pathak threatened to take their daughter to India, where he is from, and he made verbal threats to her mother and daughter, she said. She spent one day in the hospital.
Pathak pleaded not guilty to the charges at the hearing’s conclusion and Sontag set a trial date for Oct. 18.
Pathak remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility on $750,000 bail.
