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View Winners → Crime Aug 10, 2022
Yue "Emily" Yu. | Photo courtesy of the Irvine Police Department
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The husband of a dermatologist accused of poisoning him with Drano provided more details of the alleged attacks in a restraining order seeking custody of their son and daughter, according to court documents obtained Wednesday.
Dr. Jack Chen, a 53-year-old radiologist, filed a restraining order against his wife, Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, on Friday.
Yu, who was arrested by Irvine police on suspicion of attempting to poison her husband, was released from jail after posting $30,000 bail. Chen said she called him to post bail but he refused, according to the restraining order.
Chen said he is “fearful” of living in the same Irvine home with Yu “due to (Yu’s) attempts to poison me with Drano.”
Chen also alleged that “both children have suffered physical, verbal and emotional abuse by their mother … and their maternal grandmother.”
Chen said that in March and April he “started noticing a chemical taste in my lemonade” and that soon after that he “developed symptoms that had me see the doctor, who performed an examination and diagnosed me with two stomach ulcers, gastritis and esophagitis.”
That prompted Chen to set up surveillance video in the kitchen, and he attached videos and photos that he alleged show his wife pouring Drano into his drinks.
He said the two began dating in 2011 and married July 4, 2012.
He detailed multiple instances of alleged child abuse inflicted on their children, a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 8. Both have birthdays later this month.
“After the children were born I became concerned about Emily’s behavior,” Chen said. “Not only was she very demanding of me that I give her massages — one time when I could not because I was sick she stepped on my head until I did — she also began hiding money from me.”
He said his wife’s “parenting, if you could call it that revolves around yelling, insulting, verbally abusing, hitting, pushing, pulling and being emotionally abusive.”
He said if the two children said they enjoyed spending time with him she would “put them in their room and yell at them until they assured her they would not show affection toward me.”
He also accused her of “sleep deprivation” punishment at times.
Yu’s attorney, David Wohl, said his client “vehemently and unequivocally denies ever attempting to poison her husband or anyone else. As a well-respected physician her goal as always has been to help people and never to harm them. Accordingly, she also strongly denies her husband’s claims that she has abused him and their children, emotionally, physically or in any other manner. In fact, if any abuse has taken place it has been against Ms. Yu at the hands of her husband Mr. Chen.”
Wohl added, “We are very concerned that these defamatory, false allegations have been made by Mr. Chen in an attempt to gain an advantage in the divorce and custody case he filed against Ms. Yu, a day after she was arrested.”
A hearing on the restraining order is set for Aug. 18 at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange.
Prosecutors have not decided whether to file charges.
