An Orange County Grand Jury has indicted Yue “Emily” Yu, a Mission Viejo dermatologist and mother of two, on multiple felonies for allegedly poisoning her husband over several weeks by spiking his drinks with dangerous household chemicals, causing him stomach ulcers. The charges include three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, and if convicted on all counts, she could face a maximum sentence of eight years and eight months. Yu is scheduled to be arraigned on April 18.
The grand jury indictment has been unsealed, and as a result, Yu is required to self-report to the Medical Board of California, which will determine whether she is allowed to continue practicing medicine.
The allegations against Yu first came to light in April 2022 when her husband, a radiologist, began noticing a strange taste in his daily tea. Suspecting foul play, he installed cameras in the family’s kitchen and captured video footage of Yu pouring a substance out of a bottle of liquid drain cleaner into his tea on three separate occasions. Samples of the tea were tested by the FBI and confirmed to contain a substance consistent with liquid drain cleaner.
Yu was arrested by Irvine police in August 2022 on suspicion of poisoning and was released from custody after posting a $30,000 bond. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has condemned Yu’s actions, stating that “our homes should be where we feel the safest,” and that she “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.”
David Wohl, Yu’s attorney, has denied the allegations, claiming that they are motivated by a recent divorce filing and child custody case between the couple. In a statement to Fox News Digital, he stated that “Ms. Emily Yu vehemently and unequivocally denies ever attempting to poison her husband or anyone else,” and that “as a well-respected physician, her goal as always been to help people and never to harm people. Accordingly, she also strongly denies her husband’s claims of abusing him and their children emotionally and physically.”
The couple, who were married in 2012 and have a daughter and son, is now awaiting Yu’s arraignment on the charges.
