Sex, Lies, & Videotapes for an Outsize Ego.
Cheng allegedly took multiple videos of each assault, which is how authorities have identified the number of victims. On one occasion in 2021, he filmed himself groping an unconscious 37-year-old patient at Presbyterian Queens. That summer, he filmed himself raping a woman he met on a dating app; in the tape, a brown vial is seen on his bed, which authorities say resembles a vial of anesthesia they recovered from his home.
The next month, a 19-year-old woman – Jane – was admitted at Presbyterian Queens for gallbladder surgery. The day before her surgery, Cheng gave her a needless rectal exam before injecting an “unknown substance” into her IV without warning. The woman fell asleep but woke up with intense lower stomach pain. She is suing the hospital for covering up her assault and failing to act after she informed staff that Cheng had “administered a painful injection that made her lose consciousness.” Jane is also demanding the hospital notify “every patient who has ever come into contact with Cheng that he is a serial sex offender.”
Angela Karafazli, a spokesperson for NY-Presbyterian hospital system, told the New York Times about the “numerous stringent patient safety policies and protocols” recently enforced and “additional training for all employees” the hospital has provided since Cheng was arrested in December 2022. “We are appalled and deeply saddened by what these victims and their families have endured.”
Prosecutors say they believe it’s not an isolated incident; rather, an example of repeated systemic failure by hospital administrators. Jane told NBC in an interview concealing her identity: “I no longer want to go to hospitals.”
