An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday dismissed an indictment against a Mission Viejo dermatologist accused of poisoning her husband — also a physician — by putting Drano into his tea, because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from grand jurors.
The case against Yue “Emily” Yu has been beset by legal issues going back to the beginning of the year, when Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue allowed prosecutors to file a new indictment with new charges of attempted poisoning. At the time, Donahue did not make a finding on whether it limited prosecutors from bringing another indictment if a mistake was made in the way the case was brought before the grand jury.
Defense attorneys Scott Simmons and Dan Wagner argued that prosecutors refused a request from the grand jury to investigate exculpatory evidence.
“We are grateful that the court closely examined the proceedings that produced this charge and recognized that the process by which the indictment was obtained was fundamentally flawed,” Simmons said. “Emily Yu should have have been indicted. From the outset, Emily has maintained that she did nothing wrong and has placed her faith in a fair and impartial legal process We thank the court for its diligence and ask only that Emily Yu now be allowed to rebuild her life in peace.”
The indictment tossed on Friday followed one in 2023. The 2026 indictment added new charges of attempted poisoning.
Yu was previously facing a felony count of corporal injury and three counts of poisoning, all felonies.
Donahue previously ruled under the prior indictment that prosecutors would have to show injury to the alleged victim, but that they would not have to prove that under the issue of attempted poisoning.
Wagner and Simmons last year filed a brief when the case was expected to go to trial indicating they intended to prove the allegations of poisoning were bogus and were used to help the alleged victim, Dr. Jack Chen, get a leg up in his child custody battle with Yu. Experts for the defense were expected to make the case that it would be impossible for anyone to ingest such a toxic brew of the plumbing chemical and not be immediately overcome by it.
Simmons has said previously that Chen told Yu “to use Drano” to deal with an ant infestation in the house and then told her to put the chemical in lemonade or tea with sugar before setting up “spy cameras.”
Simmons also argued that medical tests would show that Chen’s maladies are not consistent with drinking Drano, but are more likely from acid reflux.
Chen said in a restraining order he filed against his wife that he “started noticing a chemical taste in my lemonade” and 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.
Chen also accused Yu of being an abusive parent to their two children.