A New York City physician has been charged in reference to the alleged sexual abuse of a minimum of six girls, together with a number of sufferers who have been drugged, filmed and assaulted throughout appointments at a prestigious native hospital, prosecutors stated.
Zhi Alan Cheng was arraigned on Monday on costs of sexually abusing three of his sufferers at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital and raping three different girls inside his house in Queens, New York.
He pleaded not responsible to the fees.
The 33-year-old gastroenterologist was terminated from his hospital job in December after his arrest for allegedly raping a feminine acquaintance in his Queens dwelling.
At the time, the girl instructed authorities she had found movies of Cheng abusing her and a number of different girls.
As investigators searched his dwelling and gadgets, they uncovered a trove of video proof displaying the physician abusing girls inside his dwelling and office, in response to the brand new indictment.
The footage confirmed Cheng groping three hospital sufferers, together with a 19-year-old and a “seriously ill” 47-year-old, prosecutors stated.
All of the ladies gave the impression to be unconscious throughout the abuse, suggesting Cheng used anesthesia to sedate them, in response to court docket paperwork.
Multiple sorts of liquid anesthesia have been recovered from his dwelling, alongside leisure narcotics equivalent to cocaine and ecstasy, the court docket paperwork say.
An lawyer for Cheng didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
In a press release, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz stated the proof pointed to “a serial rapist, someone willing to not only violate his sacred professional oath and patients’ trust, but every standard of human decency.”
The arrest follows the sentencing of one other physician within the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital system, Robert Hadden, a gynecologist who allegedly abused 245 girls over the span of twenty years.
He was sentenced to twenty years in jail in June.
Cheng’s alleged abuse came about over a a lot shorter time frame, between 2021 and 2022.
But prosecutors stated that they had extra proof to counsel that Cheng assaulted different girls at totally different areas in New York City, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Thailand, though he has not been charged in reference to these incidents.
Angela Karafazi, a spokesperson for New York-Presbyterian, stated Cheng’s alleged conduct was “a fundamental betrayal of our mission and our patients’ trust.”
The hospital intends to evaluate its affected person security insurance policies and implement extra coaching for all staff, she stated.
Source: www.9news.com.au
