Jury selected for Texas doctor charged with poisoning lover's coffee
By Amanda Orr HOUSTON (Reuters) - A jury was selected on Thursday in the trial of a breast cancer physician accused of spiking two cups coffee for her lover, a cancer researcher, with a compound commonly found in antifreeze. The trial of Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, a 43-year-old oncologist with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, is expected to begin on Monday. She has been charged with aggravated assault of a family member, a charge that covers domestic violence in dating relationships. Prosecutors were not immediately available to give details on the sentence they are seeking. Her lawyers have told local media she is innocent and unfairly charged. According to a criminal complaint, Gonzalez-Angulo had a relationship with Dr. George Blumenschein, an oncologist at the same hospital who specializes in the treatment of lung, head and neck cancers. Blumenschein told investigators that Gonzalez-Angulo served him two sweet-tasting cups of coffee while they were alone in her home in January 2013. Four hours later, he began to experience slurred speech, and a loss of balance and some motor skills. Sixteen hours after ingesting the coffee, he was admitted to a hospital and found to have central nervous system damage, cardiopulmonary complications and renal failure. Blumenschein survived after undergoing dialysis treatments. Gonzalez-Angulo is suspected of spiking the coffee with ethylene glycol, a compound commonly found in antifreeze. A senior official at MD Anderson, one of the country's top cancer hospitals, told investigators the chemical was present in all labs at the facility where the couple works. A toxicology report submitted to the court indicated that Blumenschein likely experienced ethylene glycol poisoning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an Internet posting: "It and its toxic byproducts first affect the central nervous system, then the heart, and finally the kidneys. Ingestion of sufficient amounts can be fatal." (Reporting by Amanda Orr; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Eric Beech)
