US engineer objects to court wiping colleague's conviction for poisoning her water
Berkeley engineer Rong Juan is speaking out against a court decision to expunge the criminal record of a colleague who secretly put cadmium in her water bottle for years. He had admitted guilt, but objections from the victim and prosecutors did not change the ruling.
Rong Juan, an engineer from Berkeley in the United States, has spoken publicly for the first time about a case in which a colleague secretly poured the toxic metal cadmium into her drinking water bottle over a period of years. The man had admitted his guilt, but a court recently granted his request to have his criminal record expunged, which has outraged the victim.
How the poisoning was uncovered
Juan began suffering health problems around 2017, including vomiting and hair loss. For more than two years she saw doctors, yet her condition kept worsening. A turning point came when her mother noticed an odd smell coming from the water bottle. Washing it did not help, so the engineer set up a hidden camera at her desk.
The camera recorded colleague David Xu regularly pouring a suspicious liquid into the bottle. Laboratory tests showed it was cadmium. According to a report, the cadmium level in the water sample exceeded the federal limit by 3.5 million times. Traces of the substance were also found in the bodies of Juan and her parents, since the family cooked at home using water from the same bottle.
Court proceedings and ruling
In 2019, Xu was initially charged with premeditated attempted murder. He later struck a plea deal, admitted to the poisoning and received a two-year suspended sentence with probation. A judge recently granted his request to have the conviction expunged, even though both prosecutors and the victim opposed it.
"I don't think he deserves a second chance. A second chance means an opportunity to hurt others again and make others into victims," Juan says.
Impact on the family
Juan still feels guilty for bringing the contaminated water home, where her parents were also harmed. Her father died last year of heart failure, and she says her decision to speak out, criticizing what she calls a "broken justice system", is dedicated to him as well. Almost ten years on, she still struggles with health problems and can only work part-time. Of the $500,000 in compensation she sought, she has received just $7,000.
