One attorney from Texas stands accused of trying to force his wife to have an abortion by secretly dosing her with abortion pills.
As a 38-year-old lawyer, Mason Herring was officially indicted by the members of a grand jury at a point earlier this month on a pair of felony charges. He was slammed with a charge of assaulting a pregnant woman along with a charge of “assault – forced induced to have an abortion,” as read in the documents from the court and reported on by The Guardian.
The pair, Mason Herring and his wife, had been married for a span of 11 years while having two young children. Back in February, Herring expressed that he wanted to be separated and entirely moved out of the home the couple shares. He was allegedly having an affair at the time. When his wife found out that she was pregnant, she informed him during a couples’ therapy meeting this past March and expressed to authorities that he did not give any sort of positive reaction to being given the news.
He stated that “this would ruin his plans and make him look like a jerk,” explained the affidavit, as reported by The Washington Post.
Hering’s wife explained that he then gave her water to drink, one of which she claimed was cloudy with a substance once she drank from it. She later was forced to go to the hospital in the wake of extreme bleeding.
“She stated that she then began to suspect that something had been placed in her drink and that perhaps it was some kind of abortion drug,” explained the affidavit.
He continued to give her more drinks throughout the following week once she came back from her stint in the hospital. She stated that quite a few of the glasses also had “an unknown substance” in them.
Later on, his wife invited friends over when Herring was slated to be at her house in April in order to possibly have witnesses to the strange actions. His wife, along with another pair of people, saw that one drink that Herring attempted to offer his wife had “an unknown substance” in it. She also went on to discover a few packets of Cyrux in the bin, which is a drug known to contain the abortion inducer misoprostol.
One assistant district attorney for the case, Anthony Osso, expressed to KTRK that the alleged behavior from the man was very “manipulative.”
“It’s premeditated,” explained Osso. “What we are alleging Mr Herring did, which we believe the evidence supports, is a pretty heinous act. To do that to someone who trusts you, it’s taking advantage of that trust.”
Osso went on to state that Herring’s wide did wind up giving birth to the baby slightly early, but the child is no quite healthy and thriving well.
Herring is currently out of jail after posting a bond of $30,000 and Dan Cogdell, his lawyer, issued a statement to the outlet.
“We are aware that the Grand Jury has returned these charges,” stated Cogdell. “That said, we very much look forward to our day in court and are thoroughly convinced that we will prevail in a Court of law when our time comes to defend these allegations. Until that day comes, I don’t intend to comment any publicly any further.”
