Grand jury indicts California dermatologist accused of poisoning husband with Drano

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — A grand jury in California has indicted a woman accused of poisoning her husband for several weeks by pouring liquid drain cleaner into his tea, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

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Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, was indicted on three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury. She was arrested by Irvine police in August and released on a $30,000 bond.

Authorities said Yu was a dermatologist working in Mission Viejo. She will be required to report to the Medical Board of California, which will determine whether she will be allowed to continue practicing medicine, officials said.

“Our homes should be where we feel the safest,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Wednesday in a statement. “Yet, a licensed medical professional capitalized on her husband’s daily rituals to torment her husband by systematically plying his tea with a Drano-like substance intending to cause him pain and suffering.”

In April 2022, Yu’s husband began noticing a strange taste in the tea he drinks daily, prosecutors said. Suspicious, he installed cameras in his family’s kitchen to see if he could find evidence to account for the odd taste.

Prosecutors said that video from July 2022 showed Yu pouring liquid drain cleaner into her husband’s tea three times in three weeks. The tea had been left on the counter, officials said.

Yu’s husband subsequently collected samples of the tea, which he turned over to investigators. Testing determined “the substance was consistent with liquid drain cleaner,” according to the district attorney’s office.

Court records obtained by the Southern California News Group show that Yu’s husband got a temporary restraining order following her August arrest. It requires that Yu stay away from him, from the couple’s two children and from their home. He filed for divorce days later, according to the news group.

Yu’s attorney, Scott Simmons, accused his client’s estranged husband of misrepresenting the situation in a statement obtained by KTLA.

“If you thought you were being poisoned, would you go to a divorce attorney before going to the hospital or police?” Simmons said. “Drano is not a covert poisoning agent. It has a strong smell and taste and is highly caustic. Dr. Yu is looking forward to her day in court when the truth will finally come out.”

David Wohl, who previously served as Yu’s lawyer, earlier said that Yu was pouring Drano into a small cup to clear out the pipes and that she did nothing wrong, Southern California’s City News Service reported.

Yu is expected to appear before a judge for an arraignment on April 18. If convicted on all counts, she could face a maximum sentence of eight years and eight months in prison, prosecutors said.