California doctor charged with poisoning husband with tea

Posted at 3:14 PM, April 6, 2023 and last updated 10:16 AM, June 12, 2023

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California dermatologist has been charged with poisoning her husband by pouring liquid drain cleaner into his tea, authorities said Wednesday.

Booking photo of Yue Yu

Yue Yu is accused of poisoning her husband’s tea with drain cleaner. (Irvine Police Department)

Yue “Emily” Yu, a 45-year-old doctor from Irvine, was indicted by a grand jury on three felony counts of poisoning and one count of domestic battery with injury, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

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Yu is scheduled to be arraigned on April 18. Her attorney, Scott Simmons, said she will plead not guilty.

Yu was arrested in August after her husband reported to police that he believed he was being poisoned. She was later released on bail.

Prosecutors said the man noticed a strange taste in his tea in April 2022 and installed cameras in the family’s kitchen, which captured video of Yu pouring a substance on three occasions from a bottle of drain cleaner into the tea.

The man collected samples of the tea that he gave to authorities, who confirmed the substance was consistent with drain cleaner, the statement said. The substance, authorities said, caused the man to suffer stomach ulcers.