An emerging gastroenterologist at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital is accused of raping three women in his apartment and also abusing three women at a hospital.
According to The New York Times, 33-year-old doctor Zhi Alan Cheng was initially arrested in December after his girlfriend claimed the doctor knocked her unconscious at his Astoria apartment using a surgical mask stuffed with cotton balls soaked in an unknown liquid.
She said she didn't remember anything when she awoke but found a video of Cheng sexually assaulting her along with footage of him attacking other women.
He was fired from the hospital after that, and when the investigators searched his electronic devices, they uncovered a disturbing stash: dozens of short videos showing Cheng sexually abusing other women at his home in Astoria and at the hospital where he worked.
The newspaper further mentioned that Cheng was charged with 50 new counts, including rape, sexual abuse, assault, misdemeanour drug possession, and unlawful surveillance, in criminal court in Queens. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
The latest allegations stem from the former doctor's encounters with six women, including patients and dating partners.
Prosecutors said the assaults were part of a brutal, methodical pattern in which Cheng drugged women with liquid anaesthesia before attacking them. Many woke up later with no memory of what had happened.
In addition to the assault videos, prosecutors claim that many substances, including fentanyl, ketamine, LSD, and surgical anaesthetic, were discovered in Cheng's residence.
Investigators said there were additional victims whom they had yet to identify, including one woman whose sexual assault Cheng recorded at the hospital.
At least five other unidentified women were assaulted in hotel rooms or at homes in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Thailand over the past several years, according to the videos' data, the prosecutors said.
