A 45-year-old woman repeatedly sexually abused her son, starting when he was 6, and physically assaulted her daughter for five years in their Fountain Valley home, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, but the defendant’s attorney said her client’s accusers were “brainwashed” by their father.
Yan Zhang is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, child abuse and endangerment, and attempted murder, all felonies. She also faces a sentencing enhancement for attempted premeditated murder.
The defendant is accused of pulling a plastic bag over the head of her daughter in an attempt to kill her and attacking her with a jump rope, cleats and a roller beginning when she was 10 to 15 years old, Deputy District Attorney Alyssa Marie Staudinger. She is also accused of molesting her son for years, the prosecutor added.
When her mother allegedly pulled the plastic bag over her daughter’s head, the victim “in that moment thought she was going to die,” Staudinger said.
The daughter was “by all accounts hated by her mom,” Staudinger said. “She favored (her son) and took out her anger on (the daughter).”
The children would be forced to kneel for hours on an uncomfortable rug as punishment, with the defendant at times walking by and kicking the daughter, Staudinger said.
Zhang, angered by a family pet, would at times try to force her daughter to eat cat hair, according to the prosecutor.
Their father was “the bread winner” and would have to travel to Hong Kong for business and would be away from the family for lengthy periods, Staudinger said. At times, their father would videotape the defendant to try to keep her from going too far with discipline.
“He was emotionally beat down by all of this,” the prosecutor said. “He wanted to keep his family together for the kids.”
The father even quit his career to spend more time with the children, but at some point there was a “breaking point” and the couple divorced in 2023, Staudinger said.
The divorce went quickly and the father gained custody of the children, the prosecutor said. The kids could see their mother whenever they wanted, but their father noticed they did not want to visit with her or sleep over, Staudinger said.
When the father asked why, his son told him in September of 2023 that it was because of sexual abuse, Staudinger said.
The father took the children to police and reported the alleged abuse Oct. 2, 2023, Staudinger said.
But defense attorney Rachel Gelber told jurors, “This case is a story based off a false allegation. This case is a divorce gone very wrong.”
Gelber accused the defendant’s ex-husband of “coaching the kids to turn against their mother” because he was “obsessed” with keeping the family home.
“What better way to get what he wants then by turning his children against their mother,” Gelber said.
The two married in June 2008 and began the process of divorcing in April 2023, Gelber said. Months after it was finalized and the defendant questioned the terms, the allegations surfaced, Gelber said.
“There are no independent witnesses to corroborate these claims,” Gelber said.
The defense attorney said there will be “significant inconsistencies in the children’s statements,” Gelber said.
Gelber accused the father of “engaging in parental alienation and brainwashing” of the children.
“I am here to tell you there’s reasonable doubt and lots of it,” she said.
Zhang’s son testified that he was molested three or four times a week, starting when he was 6 and ending when he was 12.
“I just said no,” he testified. “I’ll take the beating. I’ll take the time out.”
He testified that his mother would have him touch her breasts and also suck on her breasts.
“I would pretend to breast feed,” he testified.
That stopped when he was 8 or 9, he said.
Afterward, Zhang would tell him, “I’m free to go, I’m no longer in trouble,” he testified.
When asked how he viewed his mother, he said, “It was weird. … I definitely saw her as my mom. But me and my sister were both scared of her.”
He said his father would mainly take care of them and his mother would merely watch them.
“She would cook for us, but it was mainly for herself and we would eat what she would eat,” he said.
Zhang “favored” her son for cultural reasons, he said, adding that she was angry with her daughter “all the time.”
He recalled one blistering whipping of his sister with a jump rope that lasted for hours. It started as they were pulling up to their home and his sister got up to “pinch me and my mom just went nuts and the whole rest of the afternoon was beating her.”
Often, he said, he would run and hide when the punishment started.
Zhang would often call her daughter a “whore” while beating her, the son testified.
At times they would be forced to kneel on a “spiky” uncomfortable carpet for hours “begging for forgiveness,” he said.
He said at times she would grow so angry she would bite her daughter. Other times she took her daughter’s cleats and attacked her with them, leaving cuts, he testified.
The defendant despised a pet cat, he said.
“The cat was like the most hated thing in the house,” he said.
When she saw the cat, Caramel, in the house, “She would scream really loud and pour hot water on the cat or get something to throw at the cat,” he testified.
He recalled seeing his frightened sister approach him, saying their mother slipped a plastic trash bag over her head.
“She was crazed,” he said of his mother.
“She had that weird look on her face” when the abuse happened, he testified.