A California dermatologist who allegedly repeatedly poisoned her husband by pouring drain cleaner into his tea last year, causing him stomach ulcers, has been indicted by a grand jury, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Yue Yu, of Irvine, was indicted on three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury for allegedly tainting her husband’s tea over several weeks with what District Attorney Todd Spitzer called a “Drano-like substance intending to cause him pain and suffering.”
Her husband of a decade, who police have not publicly identified, allegedly caught Yu “pouring a substance out of a bottle of liquid drain cleaner into her husband’s tea that was left on the counter” on three different dates last July via cameras he set up in the family’s kitchen, according to the news release from the district attorney’s office. The husband previously identified the beverage as a “hot lemonade drink.”
An attorney for the husband previously identified him as Dr. Jack Chen, 53, a radiologist.
The attorney previously said his client filed a restraining order against Yu and filed for divorce last August. The couple married in 2012 and have two children, ages 7 and 8.
An attorney believed to be representing the husband could not immediately be reached Thursday morning.
The husband set up the cameras after he “began noticing a strange taste to the tea he drinks every day” in early April 2022, the district attorney’s office said. After the cameras caught the alleged poisoning, he gave samples of the tea to the Irvine Police Department, who forwarded them to the FBI, “which confirmed the substance was consistent with liquid drain cleaner,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Yu’s former attorney, David Wohl, previously said she “vehemently and unequivocally denies ever attempting to poison her husband or anyone else.” Wohl said Thursday he is no longer representing Yu.
Her current attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning.
Yu could face up to eight years and eight months in prison if convicted on all counts, the district attorney’s office said. Her arraignment is set for April 18.
Police arrested Yu, who goes by the first name Emily, last August on suspicion of poisoning; she was released from the Orange County Jail a day later after posting a $30,000 bond.
NBC Los Angeles reported that Yu and the husband have been involved in a child custody dispute since last year, and that she has been granted visitation but recently filed to have him financially support her, claiming she has been unable to work since the allegations surfaced. In the restraining order filing, the husband said Yu called him from jail asking him to post bail but he refused, according to NBC Los Angeles.
He also alleged in the restraining order filing that “both children have suffered physical, verbal and emotional abuse by their mother … and their maternal grandmother,” NBC Los Angeles reported.
The indictment requires Yu, a dermatologist affiliated with Providence Mission Hospital, to “self-report to the Medical Board of California, which will determine whether she will be allowed to continue to practice medicine,” the district attorney’s office said.
A spokesperson for the hospital previously said Yu is a dermatologist with Mission Heritage Medical Group, which serves communities in South Orange County, and that her office is not located in the hospital.
“This is an active police investigation and Mission Heritage Medical Group is cooperating fully with the Irvine Police Department,” the spokesperson said last year. “The incident is a domestic matter which occurred in Irvine, and we want to reassure our community that there has been no impact on our patients.”
Representatives for Providence Mission Hospital and Mission Heritage Medical Group could not immediately be reached Thursday.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
