New York City doctor who sexually abused patients in hospital gets 24-year prison sentence

NEW YORK (AP) — A doctor who sexually abused sedated patients at a New York City hospital and raped women who were unconscious at his home has been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Zhi Alan Cheng admitted abusing seven women, including three female patients he was treating at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital, the Queens district attorney’s office said. He had pleaded guilty in June to four counts of rape and three counts of sexual abuse and was sentenced Thursday.

Prosecutors also alleged Cheng abused an eighth woman who was a patient at the hospital. He entered an Alford plea on that charge, meaning that he did not admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

Most of the victims had no memory of the abuse and were sedated. One of the women woke up in the middle of an assault after she had been sedated for a gastrointestinal procedure, prosecutors said.

Cheng, 35, was arrested in 2022 after a female acquaintance discovered a video of him abusing her at his home while she was passed out. Searches of his home and devices uncovered video evidence of the doctor abusing women at his home and workplace, according to prosecutors. They also discovered liquid anesthesia.

Cheng has been barred from practicing medicine. Prosecutors have said that New York-Presbyterian officials cooperated in the criminal investigation.