By Forum Staff
A borough gastroenterologist has been indicted on charges that he sexually abused three patients at New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital in Flushing and raping three other women in his Astoria home.
Zhi Alan Cheng, 33, was previously indicted in December for allegedly raping a female acquaintance in his apartment.
Cheng is also accused in the latest indictment of drugging the women he allegedly raped in his apartment and with filming the assaults. Additionally, Cheng is charged with filming his alleged sexual abuse of the hospital patients, all of whom appeared to be unconscious in videos recovered from the defendant. In addition to the victims who have been identified, the videos seized from Cheng depict more than six other women being sexually assaulted, including one at New York-Presbyterian Queens.
Cheng was arraigned on Monday on a 50-count indictment charging him with 10 counts of predatory sexual assault, three counts of rape in the first degree, seven counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, four counts of assault in the second degree, three counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, 11 counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree, eight counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
Cheng was charged in a previous 11-count indictment, after his arrest on Dec. 27, 2022, with two counts of rape in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the first degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and four counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree. He was accused of drugging and raping a female acquaintance—Apartment Victim 1—at his Astoria home.
As a result, Cheng’s ability to practice medicine has been suspended by the State. He has been held without bail since his arrest.
While in Cheng’s residence, Apartment Victim 1 came across videos depicting her and other women being assaulted by the doctor. Afterward, in December, Apartment Victim 1’s attorney approached the Queens District Attorney’s office with this information.
An investigation by the Queens District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau and New York-Presbyterian Queens uncovered evidence resulting in the most recent indictment. A search warrant executed at Cheng’s home led to the seizure of numerous digital media storage devices containing videos of unconscious female hospital patients, as well as Cheng’s female acquaintances. Also seized were narcotics, including fentanyl, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and MDMA, as well as drugs used in health care settings for sedation, such as propofol and sevoflurane.
In addition to the hospital victims already identified, another patient who is unidentified appears in a video similar to those involving Hospital Victims 1, 2 and 3.
Videos of other women being sexually assaulted were also recovered with the conduct taking place in Cheng’s Queens apartment and in Westchester County, Manhattan, Las Vegas and in and around San Francisco and in Thailand.
Cheng, whom Katz characterized as “a sexual predator of the absolute worst kind,” faces multiple 25-years-to-life sentences.
The investigation is ongoing.
Katz urges women who think they may have been victimized to contact her office’s Special Victims Bureau, at (718) 286-6505, or SpecialVictims@queensda.org.
