New York doctor accused of drugging and raping six women

Dr Zhi Alan Cheng, 33, allegedly put the woman to sleep during a hospital visit, the New York Post reports. He then subjected her to a medically unnecessary rectal exam which he performed “for his own perverse pleasure and sexual gratification”, she claimed in a lawsuit.

“I don’t remember anything else until I woke up,” the 22-year-old, who is going by the pseudonym Jane Doe, told WABC-TV through a Spanish translator in an interview.

“I had terrible pain in my body and my legs. Everywhere.

“I’m scared to go to the doctor now. I don’t want to go. I hope God doesn’t make me sick again.”

She was 19 at the time she visited the paediatric department at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital seeking treatment for gallstones, according to her Queens Supreme Court lawsuit from June.

Cheng, a gastroenterologist at the hospital, has since been indicted on charges of rape, predatory sexual assault and related crimes.

He’s accused of drugging and raping six women – both patients and girlfriends – and then filming the sexual assaults.

At his Monday arraignment, a Queens Supreme Court judge ordered Cheng be held at Rikers Island without bail.

The judge also ordered that he be placed on suicide watch after prosecutors requested the extra protection – which his lawyer didn’t object to.

“We felt it was a sensible request in light of the compelling evidence against a young man facing the very real prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement to The Post.

On Tuesday, Cheng’s defence lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman asked that his client also be placed in protective custody – or solitary confinement – which the judge granted.

“He was placed in protective custody upon our request due to his case being featured so prominently in the media … just for precautionary measures,” Mr Lichtman told The Post.

The lawyer said his client is “otherwise doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances”.

Ms Doe’s lawyer Nicholas Liakas told The Post that he and his client would never wish for Cheng to take his own life.

“The interest of justice, not only for Jane, but justice in general, would be that [Cheng] receive his day in court and ultimately will have to deal with the consequences of the justice system and [we] don’t wish him any more [or] any less than that,” Mr Liakas said.

He told WABC he and his client have “absolutely no idea” what drugs Cheng gave her to knock her out.

“What she recalls is feeling hot and then basically losing consciousness and then waking up in immense pain,” Mr Liakas said. “The areas where she was feeling pain was very indicative of the assault.”

Mr Liakas said the doctor went into her room alone, violating protocol. He also said the hospital gave her an HIV test upon her discharge and after she made a complaint about the doctor.

Cheng pleaded not guilty to two separate indictments on three counts of rape, 10 counts of predatory sexual assault, seven counts of sexual abuse and four counts of assault, prosecutors said.

He was first arrested in December, for allegedly knocking his girlfriend unconscious with unknown drugs and then filming himself sexually assaulting her.

When the girlfriend woke up, she found the video of the attack on her, and videos of Cheng sexually assaulting other women, prosecutors said.

Law enforcement found myriad drugs at his home including fentanyl, ketamine, LSD and surgical anaesthesia, according to the District Attorney’s office.

While the charges against Cheng are tied to alleged attacks on six women – whose ages range from 19 to 47 – prosecutors said there are likely more victims.

The tapes allegedly discovered by investigators suggest Cheng sexually assaulted at least five other women in New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco, prosecutors said.

A representative for New York Presbyterian on Tuesday said it has strict patient safety policies in place and it’s working to find weaknesses in that policy.

The spokesperson didn’t comment on the accusation that the hospital failed to properly address complaints at the time they were made.

Cheng earned his medical licence in June 2020, after completing his residency at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Centre and earning his degree at Albany Medical College.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission