An anesthesiologist who operated a clinic in Escondido was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in state prison for sexually assaulting patients while they were unconscious.
Prosecutors said Leng Ky, 43, committed sex crimes against four women, aged 19 to 32, between 2015 to 2020.
Ky operated the pain management clinic at the time of his arrest in 2020. Police also said he worked over the years at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, the North County Pain Institute, Sharp Community Medical Group, Graybill Medical Group, Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and the Desert Pain Clinic in Rancho Mirage.
According to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, the victims were administered drugs like Ketamine and Propofol, which would render them unconscious.
The District Attorney’s Office said the victims sometimes woke up during the assaults, but Ky would administer drugs to put them under again.
Prosecutors alleged victims “were unable to move or even talk when they would wake up and find the defendant violating them” and that one victim remembered him whispering, “I know you like this” during the assault.
Victims were told their memories were drug-induced hallucinations, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Ky pleaded guilty to three counts of sexually assaulting an unconscious victim and one count of sexually battery by restraint on the day his trial was set to begin.
“This defendant used his position of trust as a doctor to sedate and sexually assault his victims, betraying his medical oath and traumatizing his patients,” said county District Attorney Summer Stephan.
– City News Service