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Mar. 15, 2024 By Bill Parry
An Astoria doctor was indicted by a Queens grand jury on new sexual abuse charges after another one of his patients came forward.
Dr. Zhi Alan Cheng, 34, of Broadway, was arraigned on Thursday on an indictment charging him with sexually abusing a 48-year-old woman at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens where he used to work.
In all, more than 60 charges have been filed against Cheng, who was previously indicted last August, accused of sexually abusing three patients in the same hospital and drugging and raping three other women at his Astoria home, as well as filming each of the assaults. Cheng had also been indicted in December 2022 for allegedly raping a female acquaintance in his apartment.
When he was arrested on Dec. 27, 2022, Cheng’s license to practice medicine was suspended by the state. He has been held without bail since then.
According to the newest charges, the latest victim to come forward went to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens in November 2021 with a condition that required a gastrointestinal procedure. The woman was sedated during the procedure, after which she awoke to find Cheng digitally penetrating her.
He was arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant on charges of sexual abuse in the first and second degrees. He was ordered to return to court on May 17.
“What we have heard from the victims and seen in the videos is the shocking and horrifying exploitation of women at their most vulnerable,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Taken together, the evidence details the repeated attacks of a sexual predator who time and time again betrayed his sworn professional oath and the trust of women who were unable to defend themselves.”
In August, Cheng was arraigned on a 50-count indictment and he now faces multiple 25-years-to-life sentences.
DA Katz urges women who believe they may have been victimized to contact her office’s Special Victims Bureau at (718) 286-6505, or by email at SpecialVictims@queensda.org.
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