A rising New York Metropolis physician was charged with drugging and sexually assaulting quite a few girls — together with a affected person — then filming their unconscious our bodies as he violated them.
Zhi Alan Cheng, 33, a gastroenterologist at New York Presbyterian Queens, was initially arrested in December after his girlfriend claimed the physician knocked her unconscious at his Astoria house utilizing a surgical masks filled with cotton balls soaked in an unknown liquid.
She mentioned she didn’t bear in mind something when she wakened, however discovered a video of Cheng sexually assaulting her — together with footage of him attacking different girls.
Along with discovering assault movies, prosecutors mentioned quite a few medicine together with fentanyl, ketamine, LSD, and surgical anesthesia had been present in Cheng’s dwelling.
Cheng was arraigned and indicted on three counts of rape, 10 counts of predatory sexual assault, seven for sexual abuse, and 4 counts of assault, prosecutors introduced Monday.
His alleged victims included each sufferers and girls he was relationship.
No less than one of many girls alleged she was sexually assaulted by Cheng on the hospital in Queens as a affected person when she was 19 years previous.
Prosecutors mentioned he gave her a rectal examination that was not essential for her gall bladder remedy, then injected her with a liquid and raped her, in keeping with The New York Instances.
The fees are centered on Cheng’s assaults on six girls, however prosecutors mentioned there are doubtless extra victims.
Recognized victims vary in age from 19 to 47 years previous.
The movies present in Cheng’s possession recommend he assaulted not less than 5 different girls in recent times throughout New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and even in Thailand.
“For somebody to rise to this stage the place you’re drugging and raping an individual, that doesn’t occur in a single day,” Nicholas Liakas, legal professional for the then 19-year-old sufferer, instructed NBC New York. “You’ve basically a predator in a white coat.”
That girl mentioned she was assaulted by Cheng in June 2021 — greater than 12 months earlier than his arrest — and that the hospital investigated her complaints however they went nowhere.
“As caregivers, we’re liable for the security and wellbeing of our sufferers – it’s a sacred belief,” a spokesperson for the hospital instructed The Submit in an announcement.
“The crimes dedicated by this particular person are heinous, despicable, and a basic betrayal of our mission and our sufferers’ belief. We’re appalled and deeply saddened by what these victims and their households have endured.”
A consultant mentioned the hospital has stringent affected person security insurance policies and procedures in place, and that it was working to determine any weaknesses.
The hospital didn’t touch upon the allegation that complaints about Cheng weren’t correctly addressed once they first arose.
Cheng pleaded not responsible to the fees in opposition to him and is being held with out bond on Rikers Island.
He earned his medical license in June 2020, after finishing his residency at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Middle and incomes his diploma at Albany Medical School.
