A New York based doctor, practicing at the New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital, has been charged with rape, assault, drugging and filming the violence he inflicted upon a number of women including some of his patients.
Zhi Alan Cheng received 50 new counts in addition to the first charge of rape brought against him in December for which he was arrested. On 27th of December, he was arrested on grounds of drugging and abusing a female acquaintance back at his residence.
The Queen District- Attorney’s office stated that Chang had abused three patients at the hospital and raped another three at his house. The prosecutors told CNN that the assault was not limited to his home anymore.
Cheng has pleaded not guilty to any of the new or previous charges from December for which he was taken in custody.
The new charges were a part of the investigation which began when a female acquaintance had tipped the information of finding several videos in Cheng’s home of him assaulting her and other women in December of last year. The charges include rape, unconsented surveillance and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the Queens district attorney.
On seeing the evidence on the young gastroenterologist, which showed him as “a sexual predator of the absolute worst kind,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who also called Cheng, “a serial rapist, someone willing to not only violate his sacred professional oath and patients’ trust, but every standard of human decency,” as reported by CNN.
Videos showed that Cheng had drugs like propofol and sevoflurane that are used to sedate people. He also that clips of unconscious female patients from his hospital and female acquaintances.
Since his arrest in December, at the request of the district attorney’s office, Cheng has been held without bail and placed on suicide watch, chief public information officer Frank Sobrino told CNN. His next court hearing is on Sept. 19.
Cheng received his license in May 2020 according to records maintained by the US Health and Human services. His actions began later sometime in that year.
One of the patients who Cheng had allegedly assaulted at the New York-Presbyterian Queens is suing the hospital system saying that it took no actions against Cheng even though they were aware of the situation. The 19-year-old Queen resident was admitted to the emergency room in June 2021 for severe pain caused by gallstones where Cheng performed an unnecessary rectal exam, injected her with an unknown substance and assaulted her while she was unconscious, the complaint read.
When she informed the other hospital staff about the injection and identified Cheng as the one who infected her, the hospital did not inform the police. They also let Cheng continue his position at the hospital.
When the hospital was asked about any prior complaints against Cheng in December 2022, Angela Smith Karafazli, a senior media director for the hospital system, told CNN they had nothing additional to share.
Image Source: CNN
Edited by: Nandini Roy
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