The man allegedly said a baby “would ruin his plans and make him look like a jerk” — and was caught on video putting something in his wife’s drinks.
A 39-year-old Houston attorney was given 180 days behind bars after being accused of secretly plying his pregnant wife with drugs to cause an abortion.
Mason Herring was initially charged with felony assault to induce abortion, but accepted a plea deal which saw the charges downgraded to injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person. In addition to jail time, he was given 10 years probation.
Giving an impact statement in court on Wednesday, Herring’s wife, Catherine, made it very clear she wasn’t happy with the sentence.
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“I do not believe that 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times,” she said (via ABC 13). “For two years, my husband has overtly denied this assault, and I’m grateful today that he has finally admitted to his guilt.”
He’ll start serving jail time on March 1.
The case began back in April 2022, after Catherine filed a police report accusing her husband of sneaking abortion pills into her drinks. Though the two were separated and in couple’s counseling, she got pregnant with their third child and, according to her, he had a “negative reaction” to the news. Per a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, she claimed he told her the baby “would ruin his plans and make him look like a jerk.”
While trying to work on their marriage, they took a trip together with their kids in March 2022, where Mason allegedly began to stress the importance of hydration and said his wife “needed to drink more water.” At one point, she said, he gave her a glass of water and refused to leave her side until she finished it — but the water appeared cloudy. According to Catherine, he told her “perhaps the cup was dirty or the pipes were dirty.”
She later became violently ill and started to suspect her husband was up to no good.
YouTube/Bucks County DA
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That same day, Catherine continued to have diarrhea and went to the hospital once she discovered she was also bleeding. After that, she said her husband kept plying her with drinks containing “an unknown substance” over the next month, which she did not consume. Catherine also said she discovered open packets of a drug “used to cause abortion” in the trash, after seeing her husband clean out his vehicle.
Video from her kitchen also allegedly showed him “taking a Ziplock bag out of his pocket and emptying the contents” into a drink he later gave her.
In court, Catherine said their baby was born 10 weeks premature, weighing just over three pounds. According to the AP, she also said the baby has developmental delays and attends therapy eight times a week.
“It’s a sad situation and Mason has accepted his responsibility,” Mason Herring’s attorney, Dan Codgell, said after his client accepted the plea deal.
Orange County Corrections Department
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