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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Friday, December 28, 2018

DA: Former LU Senior Yukai Yang Wants Slow Boat to China

Yukai Yang
Late last week, a former Lehigh University Senior Chemistry major was charged with attempting to murder his roommate with Thallium. A former Lehigh University Senior Chemistry major has been charged with attempting to murder his roommate with Thallium. According to Norco DA John Morganelli, who announced the charges Dec 20, Yukai Yang, 22, admitted to Lehigh University police that he had purchased Thallium online, and intended to use it on himself if he did poorly on exams. He admitted to mixing it with food and beverages in a community refrigerator he shared with his roommate. Now Yang, whose student visa has been revoked, literally wants to be deported to China. According to Morganelli, it's to avoid prosecution.

Thallium is considered extremely toxic. Its use has been banned in the United States since 1972 after several accidental deaths when being administered as a pesticide.

Testing of the roommate's blood revealed unsafe Thallium levels, according to Morganelli.

This poisoning goes back to March and April, when Lehigh University police responded to several complaints from Yang's roommate, Juwan Royal. He told police of changing colors in his milk and mouthwash. In addition to getting ill, his personal property was vandalized on several occasions. On his desk, someone had scrawled "NIGGER, GET OUT OF HERE" with a black marker.

Lehigh University police noticed similarities between the message in marker and a written statement from Yang, and charged him in May with malicious mischief, institutional vandalism and ethnic intimidation. Yang was free on $10,000 bail (10%). He is a native Chinese and resides in Easton with his mother. A trial date is scheduled for late January on the ethnic intimidation charges.

Yang never took those exams. He was suspended by Lehigh. Royal graduated from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences in May.

I'll let John Morganelli fill you in on what must have been a busy Christmas weekend for him:

"Over the Christmas holiday weekend, I learned that Yukai Yang had posted $200,000 cash bail in Northampton County. With that, ICE exercised physical custody of Mr. Yang and removed him from Northampton County Prison to a holding location in Lehigh County pending a deportation hearing in York, Pa. I then learned that Yang intended to waive his right to deportation and apparently thought that he could evade prosecution by going home to China.

"As a result of all of this, I directed ADA Abraham Kassis to file a Motion to Modify Bail and a Writ with ICE to have Mr. Yang returned to us for prosecution . This was filed on December 24, 2018. ICE cooperated with my office in this, and Mr. Yang is now back in Northampton County Prison. I am asking that Mr. Yang be held without bail in that he poses a serious flight risk. A hearing will be held on the Commonwealth's Motion at the discretion of the Court as soon as possible. A copy of that Motion and proposed Order of Court is attached.

"If this was an American citizen, that person would be required to face these charges. Mr. Yang thought that because he is a foreign national, now here illegally in that his student visa has been revoked, that he could post bail, waive his right to a deportation hearing and abscond. That will not happen. I want to commend ADA Kassis and officials at ICE who worked over the holiday to assure that the victim in this case will have these charges heard by a judge and or jury."

19 comments:

Bernie O'Hare said...

I am deleting a series of comments from troll Rolf Oeler that have attempted to hijack this thread into a harangue on illegal immigration. This has nothing to do with that subject or border security, and Yang entered this country legally. A DA who is opposed to illegal immigration is using his resources to keep one of them here, as he should.

Anonymous said...

Excellent work by all involved. Thanks Bernie for getting this information out.

Hope you had a great holiday!

The Banker

HelenP said...

Thanks for staying on this Bernie. And thanks to DA Morganelli, ADA Kassis and ICE.

Anonymous said...

Morganelli deserves credit for holding principle over economics.
Figure the trial is 200 k and 15 yrs at 50k a yr to incarcerate so spending 950 thousand or if the costs are less say a half mil for a prisoner who will be deported at the end anyway.
Versus the default of the bail which brings 200 thousand into the coffers.
At the very least the bondsman should be very grateful.

Anonymous said...

Oh please, Bernie. Get a grip. Just once.

Anonymous said...

Bernie the local collegite advertisement sales people have made national news with this one.

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:02 makes a lot of sense. So we are going to spend all this money on a trial and then this prison term. Just send him to China. Its not like he will sneak across the border. The guy will never show his face in the US again. No one died.

Bernie, I have to agree this is one time your mancrush is blocking common sense. This is pure political theater by JM.

Anonymous said...


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Anonymous said...

Another item would be if the student was deported and the victim made noise then Morganelli would look bad as in "What guy let this happen? scenario.
So Morganelli had his own reason to make sure the accused did not disappear to China.

Anonymous said...

The most craven reason for this action would be that Morganelli wants to use this crime for his own purposes.
Around the time of the crime trump was attacking China with his stupid trade war.
Morganelli has an accused who is Chinese(the fact that the accused is legal--- he is Chinese and close enough to an illegal for trump's circle of friends)and Morganelli in public cites justice but (quietly unlike last time) Morganelli is really just auditioning for one of those lifetime federal judge appointments.

Anonymous said...

Re: 4:00pm & 3:19pm

What the hell is wrong with you? The guy attempted to murder his roommate. His mother posted and, apparently, was ready to forfeit $200,000 cash bail specifically so her son can flee the country to avoid any responsibility for his conduct.

Morganelli is doing the job he was elected to do. We do not have a different set of laws applicable only to defendants that, seemingly having attempted to murder someone, now opt to leave the country without penalty. Let a jury decide his guilt or innocence like everyone else.

Get a grip on reality.

Anonymous said...

9.12
so who authorized ICE to take him to a deportation hearing?
from Morganelli's statement " ICE exercised physical custody of Mr. Yang and removed him from Northampton County Prison to a holding location in Lehigh County pending a deportation hearing in York, Pa."
so clearly no one from ICE cared about attempted murder charges and clearly someone at the jail let this happen.
If the heroic Morganelli did not personally intervene the suspect would have been deported ASAP.
So at the least there is a question of how can ICE just stroll up to the prison and grab someone?
The prison just releases someone to their custody based on what ICE wants?
ICE has been known to deport American citizens based on shoddy info before
Nobody goes over this before the accused was taken?
That part is not addressed by Morganelli----How was that allowed to happen in the first place?
Where was the failure and how will it be prevented in the future?
Who decides when ICE can just grab someone from the prison?
Does ICE need Morganelli's permission?
And should they?
After all the Fed's at ICE claim jurisdiction over everyone but if they need the permission of Morganelli then the tail is wagging the dog.




Anonymous said...

Fuk yu with Wang was not affiliated with Yang

Anonymous said...

"Johnny ShowBoat" strikes again.....No Way this clown for Judge! This guy is an embarrassment to

Anonymous said...

Open Borders Bernie just can't handle the truth of Trump continuing his courageous battle to Make America Great Again.

Save an innocent policeman's life by just saying NO to Sanctuary Cities and Sanctuary States!


Anonymous said...

@7:30,
Doing one's job is considered "showboating"? Not everyone is on an ego trip.

Anonymous said...

Re: 10:50pm

ICE had a deportation detainer on him once his student visa was revoked.
When his mother posted the $200,000 cash bail, he was eligible for release from NCP but for ICE's detainer on him. At that point, ICE exercised control over the defendant and took custody of him pending a deportation hearing. He voluntarily waived the deportation hearing and was eligible for release from federal custody. He was expecting to be given a period of time to voluntarily leave the country on his own. He presumably planned on jumping the $200,000 cash bail and returning to China where we have no extradition treaty. All planned by the defendant and his mother in consultation with some immigration lawyer. He would, therefore, be long gone and out of the reach of the US courts.
Morganelli saw through this in concert with ICE and is having his bail revoked/increased so he cannot flee the country. Smart on the DA's part. Again, doing his job.

Anonymous said...

12.14
that is informative.thankyou
However the suspect up until the 20th was on parole for the lesser charges.
His student visa was revoked way back at the end of the school year.
So if ICE wanted to deport they should have swooped when he made bail for the lesser charges,anytime say May to December.
from the article "charged him in May with malicious mischief, institutional vandalism and ethnic intimidation. Yang was free on $10,000 bail".
So ICE was not too concerned about his illegal status for quite some time.
So all of a sudden just after bail is made again for more serious charges ICE just waltzes in and grabs him?
Why the sudden interest on their part?
their timing and motive is suspect.
It would be interesting to know what date ICE made their request for the suspect.
So it seems the DA did not have a high enough bail amount to keep him locked up(so who failed to impress the judge with how bad an hombre he is?) and used ICE to nab him after he made bail.
So who called ICE and why is ICE being used as the DA's cats-paw?


Anonymous said...

Sorry, I do not applaud JMs move here. Let him be deported. Now I have to pay for a trial and house this but for the next 60 years. I’d rather have immigration send him packing and be done with him. Would we have been able to keep the 200k as well?