A California judge has cleared the felony record of a Berkeley engineer whose coworker caught him on hidden camera pouring a toxic metal into her water bottle, over the objections of prosecutors.
Story Highlights
- Prosecutors say David Xu poisoned coworker Rong Yuan’s food and water with cadmium from 2017 to 2019.
- Yuan’s hidden desk camera recorded Xu pouring something into her water bottle in March 2019.
- Xu pleaded no contest to one poisoning count and got two years of probation, with no prison time.
- An Alameda County judge granted his request to expunge the conviction, and the district attorney’s office objected.
- Yuan, who says she still lives with health problems, says, “I don’t think he deserves a second chance.”
A Judge Clears A Poisoner’s Record
David Xu, a former senior materials engineer at Berkeley Engineering and Research, an engineering company in Berkeley, finished his probation in March. He then asked the court to wipe his felony poisoning conviction off his record. California law requires judges to grant these requests when a defendant has met the terms of probation, according to reports. That rule is why Xu was able to ask, and why the judge said yes even though prosecutors fought it.
On Monday, Oct. 12, an Alameda County judge granted Xu’s request over the objections of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. To expunge a conviction in California means the court sets aside the guilty plea and dismisses the case. It does not mean Xu was found innocent, and a record of the case still exists. The judge’s written reasons have not been released. Reporters reached out to Xu’s attorney, and no response has been published.
Caught On A Hidden Camera
Rong Yuan, an engineer hired at the company in January 2017, began getting sick within weeks. She had dry heaving, vomiting and hair loss, and she went to the hospital again and again. In January 2019 her mother noticed an odd, sour taste and smell in her water bottle and suspected someone was tampering with it. Yuan bought a small spy camera and set it on her desk on Feb. 11, 2019.
A video from March 4, 2019, shows Xu pouring something into her bottle. “My blood was frozen,” Yuan said. “I cannot let him go.” She turned the footage over to Berkeley police. Testing found cadmium, a toxic heavy metal used in batteries and industry. One water sample held cadmium at 3.5 million times the federal level, according to a report reviewed by reporters. Yuan and her parents all tested positive for it. She believes her family was exposed because they cooked with water from the same bottle.
A Plea Deal And A Light Sentence
Xu was charged in 2019 with premeditated attempted murder and two felony counts of poisoning. Under a plea deal, he pleaded no contest to one poisoning count. A no contest plea means he did not admit guilt but accepted the conviction. He was offered one year of probation. At his 2024 sentencing, the judge raised it to two years and called the deal “extremely generous, considering everything in this case.” Yuan asked for $500,000 in restitution, which is money a court orders an offender to pay a victim. She received $7,000.
A Victim Who Still Feels It
Almost ten years after she first got sick, Yuan says she still has health problems and can work only part time. She released her spy-cam video as Xu moved to clear his record and called it her “last resort.” She says she still does not know why he targeted her. She recalls that he pushed her to stay out of the lab and look for other jobs. “It’s planned,” she said of the poisoning. “I don’t think he deserves a second chance.”
Yuan says she feels guilty that the poisoned water made it into her home, where her parents were exposed too. Her father died last year of heart failure, and she says he is part of why she chose to speak out.
What The Ruling Means
The law did what it was written to do: it rewarded a man for finishing probation. It did not weigh what he did to earn that probation. A woman spent years sick, lost the chance to work full time and watched her family get exposed to a poison. The man who did it now has a dismissed case. Yuan says she has little choice but to move forward, and she is doing it out loud so others can see what happened to her.
Sources:
ibtimes.co.uk, sfstandard.com, foxnews.com, independent.co.uk, ktla.com
