Yue Yu faces charges after allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a liquid “resembling Drano”, prosecutors have said. (Irvine Police Department mugshot; screenshot of her in the kitchen courtesy of Steven G. Hittelman of the Hittelman Family Law Group)
A man who says he caught his wife on nanny cam pouring ‘Drano-like’ cleanser into his morning tea to try and kill him abused her and the couple’s children on a daily basis before she is charged with poisoning and domestic violence.
In a 2022 court statement asking a Southern California judge for custody of the children after the arrest of his wife, Yue “Emily” Yu, Jack Chen, 53, alleged years of abuse by the suspect and the suspect’s mother at their home in Irvine, California, a suburb of Orange County, 45 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
Chen’s attorney, Steven Hittleman, called the allegations insidious.
“She wanted him to suffer,” he told Law&Crime. “It’s just another form of domestic violence that she used against him.”
Yu’s attorney, Scott Simmons, told Law&Crime that the events surrounding the indictment unfolded against the backdrop of a troubled marriage, that the kitchen in the family home had an ant problem, and that Chen had arranged these events to unfairly take advantage of his wife in divorce court.
“Jack and Emily routinely used household cleaning products like Drano to combat the ant problem,” he said in a statement. “Jack planted spy cameras to capture Emily pouring Drano into a cup of lemonade. She was doing it to bait and kill ants. But Jack falsely claimed she was doing it to poison him. Of course, Drano is a terrible substance to use as a secret poison due to its strong smell and taste and the immediately catastrophic injuries it causes.
“Jack claimed he was injured while drinking the Drano. In fact, the medical evidence is inconsistent with Jack consuming Drano. His so-called injuries are attributable to a mild condition of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). Jack never went to the ER for treatment, like someone who took Drano would. And instead of calling 911, he called his divorce attorney.
Chen summarized the abuse allegations in a domestic violence restraining order seeking custody of the children last year. A judge granted the request and allowed Yu to see the children on supervised visits, Chen’s attorney said, adding that she is free on her own accord and can now see the children without supervision.
Chen described in court documents his allegation that his wife tried to kill him by poisoning his hot lemonade with drain cleaner after she began noticing a chemical taste in the drink in March and April 2022.
He said he was diagnosed with two stomach ulcers, gastritis and inflammation of the esophagus.
After his suspicions were cleared, he set up a nanny cam that allegedly caught her three times taking drain cleaner from under the sink and pouring it into her drink, according to court documents.
Chen said a video shows him sipping his still warm lemonade and covering the cup with saran paper. His wife then took the drain cleaner from under the sink, removed the plastic wrap from the drink, poured the drain cleaner, replaced the cellophane and put the drain cleaner back on.
He reported the incidents on August 4, 2022 to the Irvine Police Department.
Chen said that after his arrest, Yu called him from prison to ask him to bail her out, but he refused.
The husband said he first became concerned about his wife’s behavior shortly after their children were born in 2013 and 2014.
Chen alleged that Yu and her mother, who helped care for the children, were both verbally and emotionally abusive, according to court documents.
“Emily would call me ‘f——a——’ and other slurs,” court documents said.
Chen alleged that Yu minimized his existence and used the children to make him do menial tasks.
“Emily’s parenting, if you could call it that, revolves around yelling, name calling, verbal abuse, hitting, pushing, pulling and being emotionally abusive,” he said. alleged. “If our kids let Emily know that they liked spending time with me or showed affection towards me, then Emily would put them in their room and yell at them until they assured her that ‘they wouldn’t show affection towards me.
When the mother is frustrated and yells at the children, she uses a Chinese phrase that translates to “Go die!” Chen alleged in court documents.
Documents claimed that she also made derogatory comments towards children, including: “Your head has a problem”, “Your head is sick”, “Go away”, “f—— idiot”, “stupid a——” and “Take the f— out of my way.”
While practicing the piano for a competition once, the mother allegedly called the couple’s daughter, “f—— stupid!”
Chen also accused Yu of using sleep deprivation to punish the children, the father claimed. He said that when the children fell asleep without his permission, even after 11 p.m., she woke them up and asked them to go to her room, where she closed the door and made them cry.
“In the end, sometimes she would tell the kids to get out and then slam the door behind them, making them cry outside her door,” the court documents say.
The children are supposed to have a ‘happy face’ around their mother and grandmother, according to court documents.
Children are not allowed to have much contact with their friends. Yu packed his schedule so there was no time for socializing or play dates, “isolated in his own little bubble”, he alleged.
“I am being ignored and not recognized as a member of the family,” he wrote in court documents. “When the kids wrote letters to Santa, they left my name out lest Emily get upset.”
David Dworakowski, Yu’s divorce attorney, told CNN that his client “is innocent of these outrageous charges; she is eager to present her case at trial. Dworakowski did not return Law&Crime’s request for comment.
Yu was arrested in August and released from jail after posting $30,000 bond. She faces three counts of poisoning and one count of domestic assault with bodily harm, prosecutors said.
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