A 33-year-old New York City gastroenterologist appeared in court in Queens Monday on charges of 50 counts of drugging and raping women around the world — including at the hospital where he worked.
Zhi Alan Cheng is accused of filming the attacks on his phone, and was stopped in December when an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape and reported finding videos of herself and other women on his phone.
The ex-girlfriend accused Cheng of using a K-N95 mask filled with liquid-soaked cotton balls to knock her out.
Police began investigating her claim, and Cheng was arrested and released from the hospital where he worked, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens.
On Monday, the extent of his depravity was made clear, with prosecutors claiming he assaulted multiple women aged 19 to 47 at his home in Astoria; in the hospital where he worked; and in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Thailand.
Six women appear in the videos, but prosecutors believe there may be more.
Zhi Alan Cheng, a 33-year-old gastroenterologist, is accused of drugging and raping women in New York-Presbyterian Queens where he worked, as well as at his home
Cheng attended Albany Medical College in the 2010s before completing his residency at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He obtained his medical license in New York in June 2020
Queens district attorney Melinda Katz urged anyone with possible leads on other victims to come forward, saying the evidence pointed to “a sexual predator of the absolute worst kind, a serial rapist.”
She said he was willing to break “every standard of human decency.”
After the December 2022 attack, Cheng’s home was raided and police found drugs including fentanyl, ketamine, LSD and various anesthetics typically used in surgery, plus devices with dozens of other recordings in his home.
The attacks are believed to date from 2021.
In one case, Cheng is accused of filming himself groping a 37-year-old patient as she lay unconscious at Queens Hospital in 2021.
A short time later, prosecutors said, he raped a woman he met on a dating app and filmed the attack.
In the video, a small brown bottle was visible on his bed, according to authorities, who said they recovered a similar bottle from his apartment that contained a powerful anesthetic.
That same year, he is accused of raping a 19-year-old girl who went to hospital the day before her gallbladder was due to be removed.
She said that Cheng unexpectedly injected her with a substance that put her to sleep and “when she woke up, (the) doctor was no longer in (the) room.”
She experienced “extreme pain in (her) lower abdomen.”
She and her mother both feared she might have been sexually assaulted, but she told social workers who specialize in sexual assault that she didn’t know what had happened while she was unconscious.
She told hospital authorities and did not accuse him of rape, but the medical staff took the allegation seriously: they checked CCTV footage and key card access, and set up a line-up at the hospital where she identified Cheng.
Nicholas Liakas, the teen’s lawyer, said the investigation into the incident has stalled and he has since filed a civil suit against the hospital.
Nicholas Liakas, representing the 19-year-old prosecutor, is suing the hospital for failing to report the June 2021 attack to police
“That investigation, if you want to call it that, hit a dead end,” he said NBC 4 News.
He told the channel that the hospital “conspired to cover up her attack by not telling her what had happened, not testing or treating her for the illegal and dangerous injection of drugs she had received, and by refusing to inform police to call’.
New York-Presbyterian declined to comment on the 19-year-old’s allegations, but expressed outrage at his alleged behavior.
“The crimes committed by this individual are heinous, despicable and a fundamental betrayal of our mission and the trust of our patients. We are shocked and deeply saddened by what these victims and their families endured,” the statement said.
The hospital said Cheng was discharged six months ago after the New York Presbyterian learned of the rape charge.
“In December 2022, as soon as the prosecutor informed us of allegations of sexual abuse against this individual, he was immediately suspended, banned from hospital property and discharged,” the hospital said.
“We have fully cooperated with the Queens District Attorney’s Office, the NYPD and the NYS Department of Health.”
Cheng’s attorney, Jeffrey Einhorn, said Monday it was “too early” to comment on the case.
Cheng pleaded not guilty and is being held at Rikers Island.