Stanford PH.D Candidate Gets Year In Jail For Beating Ex-Girlfriend

A Stanford University Ph.D student was sentenced to a year in jail Tuesday for beating an ex-girlfriend so severely she required surgery, San Mateo County prosecutors said today.

Yushun Dong, 33, of Mountain View, was in an engineering graduate program with the victim.

They dated for a year and broke up last June, according to the district attorney’s office. But on July 19, Dong went to her Menlo Park home and angrily hit her six to seven times, fracturing her eye socket and requiring surgery, prosecutors said.

Hospital staff called police. The victim initially denied the allegations but eventually told police Dong had attacked her, prosecutors said. He pleaded no contest in February to felony domestic violence causing great bodily injury on the condition that he serve no state prison time.

Judge Leland Davis handed down the year sentence Tuesday.

Once released, Dong will serve three years’ probation as well, prosecutors said. He was also ordered to take 104 hours of domestic violence counseling and perform 30 hours of community service, according to the district attorney’s office. Dong’s attorney, John Halley, was not immediately available for comment this morning.

--Bay City News