Mason Herring, Houston, Texas attorney sentenced to 180 days jail trying to induce 7 month pregnant wife to have an abortion while having an affair with another woman.
A Texas husband has been sentenced to just 180 days jail after spiking his 7 month pregnant wife’s drinks in a bid to induce an abortion for a child he did not want amidst an affair he was having with another woman.
Mason Herring, 39, a Houston-based attorney, was sentenced on Wednesday to 180 days inside the Harris County Jail, beginning March 1, in addition to 10 years of probation as part of a plea deal.
Herring made numerous attempts to drug his wife, Catherine Herring, leaving her ill and their third baby born 10 weeks prematurely. The child now suffers from developmental delays and receives therapy eight times per week.
‘I do not believe that 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times,’
The lawyer’s repeated attempts to drug his wife in 2022 came in the midst of the attorney cheating and having an affair with an un-named woman. At the time, Herring told his then pregnant wife, Catherine, he wanted to split up. She told the court he feared ‘looking like a jerk’ if she gave birth.
The jilted wife appeared during her husband’s sentencing, where she condemned the judge for giving her soon to be ex husband such a lenient sentence, WFAA reported.
‘I do not believe that 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times,’ she told the court. ‘For two years, my husband has overtly denied this assault, and I’m grateful today that he has finally admitted to his guilt.’
‘I believe that the result was a good one for my client. He has accepted responsibility for he did,’ his lawyer, Dan Codgell, told ABC13.
Mason was scheduled to stand trial on three felony charges in March. He was originally charged with forcing induction to have an abortion but he admitted guilt to lesser charges of assault of a pregnant person and injuring a child under fifteen.
Abortion-inducing drug misoprostol
Catherine told the court that due to her husband’s actions, she gave birth to their daughter 10 weeks premature – causing the newborn to spend months eating through a feeding tube and saddled with learning and development difficulties.
She also said that Mason had stopped financially supporting her and their three children since the incident.
Mason was secretly drugging his wife to abort her pregnancy with their third child.
He was filmed on one occasion putting the abortion-inducing drug misoprostol into a glass of cranberry juice which he then encouraged his wife of 11 years to drink.
‘[Catherine Herring] stated that this was out of character for [Mason Herring] as he does not do chores around the house,’ the affidavit states.
‘[Catherine Herring] stated that when [Mason Herring] left the residence, she went to the trash can to see what was inside. [Catherine Herring] stated that she then found opened blister packs labeled as ‘Cyrux,’ which she discovered was a Mexican pharmacy version of the American drug Cytotec and the main ingredient of which is Misoprostol, a drug that [Catherine Herring] knows is used to cause abortion.’
When a wife first realizes her husband is drugging her
Catherine first became aware that Mason may have been drugging her when he offered her a glass of cloudy water in March 2022 during their Spring break and mentioned the importance of staying hydrated.
Within 30 minutes Catherine says she became very ill with diarrhea and cramps and was unable to get to the bathroom before soiling herself.
Within hours she was bleeding copiously and went to hospital where she provided a urine sample that was nearly black in color, Houston police said in an affidavit.
The lawyer’s repeated attempts to drug his wife came after he started having an affair earlier this year and told his wife he wanted to separate.
When he discovered she was pregnant with their third child, he took action to abort the baby which he said would ‘ruin his plans and make him look like a jerk’.
The couple’s baby was eventually born safely, albeit prematurely, attorneys have said.
Empty packaging containing abortion inducing chemicals
Mason is a lawyer and the founder of Herring Law Firm that specializes in oil rig litigation in Houston. Catherine is an artist and the founder of online shop Old Southern Charm according to the dailymail.
According to a 2020 post on social media, Mason received the following accolade, acknowledging him as a rising star: ‘Congratulations to Mason Herring on being included on this year’s Texas Rising Stars list!’
Despite her strong reaction to the drug on their spring break, Catherine told police that Mason made repeated attempts to secretly administer it to her – including in orange juice cartons which she could see had been unsealed.
Catherine told police that after drinking the water that left her hospitalized she did not consume any drinks prepared by Mason, but instead collected samples to build a case against him.
Six of those samples that she saved were tested in a lab in Oklahoma and at least two were shown to contain misoprostol.
Abuse of trust
One day in April, Catherine also called two friends to her house after suspecting she had been drugged. Both friends saw a material floating in a drink provided to her by her husband, the affidavit stated.
After installing cameras in the family house – in which Mason was no longer living – Catherine said she found empty Cyrux packaging, which she later found out was a Mexican version of the American drug Cytotec which contains misoprostol.
Eventually she recorded her husband preparing a cranberry juice drink in the kitchen and adding to it a substance from a Ziploc bag he pulled form his pocket. The video footage was reviewed by Houston police.
Herring was charged with assault of a pregnant person and forced induction to have an abortion – a charge that’s never been used before in Harris County, district attorneys told KTRK at the time.
On April of 2022, Catherine went to a police station in Houston wanting to pursue charges against her husband Mason for a ‘suspected poisoning’.
She told police that in February she had confronted her husband over lies about where he was and she believed he was continuing an affair with a woman he had previously hired.
Soon after that confrontation Mason told her he wanted to separate, she said. Nonetheless, the two began going to couple’s therapy, wrote a Houston Police Department investigator in a probable cause affidavit.
It was during a counseling session that Catherine claimed to have told Mason about her pregnancy – news to which he responded negatively.
After that the couple spent spring break together with their two children in West Texas. It was in that period that Catherine said Mason began talking about the importance of drinking water and staying hydrated.
Catherine alleges that on March 17 Mason came to her house in Houston with breakfast and a glass of water.
She says that after taking a small sip from the glass she noticed the water was ‘cloudy’ and mentioned it to Mason, who suggested it could have been due to a dirty glass or water pipes.
‘It’s manipulative,’ Anthony Osso, the assistant district attorney in the domestic violence division assigned to this case, said at the time.
‘It’s pre-meditated. 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.’
