At least 26 women are now saying that a Tracy plastic surgeon sexually abused them during surgery or exams, police said today.
The number has tripled since earlier this week with 18 more victims who came forward alleging sexual assault by 46-year-old Peter Chi, who owns Beauty Renewed. A criminal complaint alleges that Chi raped or otherwise sexually abused eight women. He faces
11 felony counts of sexual abuse, including three counts of rape by a foreign object.
A judge today ordered the doctor to stay away from his medical office and see no more patients at least until his arraignment next week. Chi also surrendered his passport in court and is free after posting $100,000 bail.
Chi will likely spend time in state prison and register for life as a sex offender, police said.
He showed up to court three minutes before his scheduled hearing with his wife and bondsman, his head held high, his demeanor upbeat in front of a crush of cameras and the presence of at least two victims and their family.
Since investigators on Wednesday filed the first complaint charging the doctor with having molested eight women since late 2007, a slew of new victims have contacted police.
Police said that in some cases,
nurses watched Chi molest his patients, telling them it was part of the procedure, and at other times no one but the patient and doctor were in the room.
After returning from court today, Tracy police Detective Nate Cogburn got to work interviewing the several new victims who came forward since news broke of the allegations against Chi. Investigators said they expect to file an updated complaint either Friday or early next week.
Chi nearly got his license revoked last year when he found a cancerous cyst on the neck of a 59-year-old man at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital but failed to tell him about it, according to the California Medical Board. It took an exam by another doctor for the patient to find out he had cancer.
The petition alleged malpractice and charged Chi with “gross negligence” because he failed to share the results with the patient.
Chi
also has three malpractice settlements on his record from recent years.
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