A Queens gastroenterologist admitted in state court on Monday to drugging and sexually assaulting sedated hospital patients and unconscious acquaintances, crimes he often recorded on video. Dr. Zhi Alan Cheng, 35, pleaded guilty to seven counts of rape and sexual abuse and entered an Alford plea to an additional count for attacks that occurred between 2020 and 2022 at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital and in his Astoria apartment. The physician, who has been jailed without bail since his December 2022 arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced to 24 years in prison on Aug. 28 by Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit Durant. Cheng was originally charged in a 50-count indictment in 2023 and faced further charges in 2024 after another hospital victim came forward. Prosecutors said investigators recovered numerous digital videos showing Cheng groping sedated patients as young as 19 and raping women he had met online. A search of his home also yielded fentanyl, ketamine, cocaine, LSD, MDMA and medical sedatives such as propofol and sevoflurane. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz called Cheng "a sexual predator of the absolute worst kind" and noted that his actions violated both the law and his professional oath. The state suspended Cheng’s medical license in 2023.