Prosecutors accuse Vegas doctor of rape, reveal 11 new victims

Prosecutors say they have identified 11 new victims, including a female patient who was drugged and raped, in the case of a Las Vegas doctor accused of videotaping sexual acts with the woman's teenage daughter.

Dr. Binh Minh Chung, a family practitioner whose license was suspended in June, appeared Wednesday before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis, who granted a prosecutors' request to increase his bail to $1 million.

"Bail is not unreasonable to be set at one million," the judge said. "In fact, it might be even reasonable to make it higher."

Prosecutors filed an amended criminal complaint Wednesday with a total of 28 counts, including multiple charges related to the new victims.

Chung's bail was set at $550,000 after his June 20 arrest, but Chief Deputy District Attorney James Sweetin argued for the increase Wednesday. Sweetin said the case now has a dozen victims, all of whom were Chung's patients.

Chung, 41, originally faced 11 counts involving the production and possession of child pornography. The amended complaint includes three counts of sexual assault, a crime that carries a potential life sentence, involving one victim.

The new counts make Chung a flight risk and a "potential threat to the community," Sweetin argued. The amended complaint also includes 13 counts of administering a drug to aid in the commission of a felony.

Defense attorney Christopher Oram said his client has no prior felony convictions and has made all of his court appearances. He also said Chung has family in the community, including a brother who attended Wednesday's hearing, and two minor children.

According to Chung's arrest report, the investigation began after his wife found videos of him "having sex with women who appeared unresponsive."

In court on Wednesday, Oram said his client is going through a divorce.

According to court documents unsealed in July, Chung was accused in a prior case of fondling a 15-year-old girl who sought treatment for pink eye. The 2006 case was dismissed after he performed 100 hours of community service, attended "impulse control" classes and agreed to "stay out of trouble," according to the documents.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal sought to have the records unsealed in an effort to determine why the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners only placed a letter expressing concern in Chung's file, but took no action to prevent him from continuing to practice medicine.

In the new case, Chung is accused of fondling another underage girl between January 2013 and the end of September 2014 "for the purpose of producing a pornographic performance." He also is accused of possessing numerous other visual presentations depicting child pornography.

The drug charges involve accusations that Chung of gave victims the anesthetic ketamine to assist in commission of sexual assault.

Lippis delayed Chung's preliminary hearing Wednesday after learning that the defense had not yet received discovery related to the new victims.

Oram said prosecutors have notified him that they plan to seek an indictment from a grand jury. Unlike preliminary hearings, grand jury hearings are held behind closed doors.

Chung remained in the Clark County Detention Center Wednesday. If he does post bail, Lippis said, he must surrender his passport and stay away from children. Oram said Chung, a native of Vietnam, is a U.S. citizen.

According to Chung's recent arrest report, a teenager told Las Vegas police on June 4 that she had been the victim of a sex crime nearly a year earlier. Chung's wife also came to police that day. Police have not released the girl's age, but records indicate she was older than 14 and younger than 18 when Chung used her to create pornography.

She told investigators that Chung was her family doctor and had convinced her to get treatment for acne. According to the report, Chung picked her up from her home at about 10 p.m. in July 2014 and drove her to his office for her third treatment.

"She said he told her he had to put his kids to sleep before giving her the treatment," the report states.

The patient told police she was given a shot in her arm, passed out and kept going in and out of consciousness. She said she woke up alone in an exam room with her pants off and her feet in stirrups before losing consciousness again. At another point she woke up and vomited, the report states.

"She explained how she was ultimately revived by Chung who told her she had a bad reaction to the acne treatment," according to the report.

The patient said Chung drove her home at about 3 a.m. the next day.

When asked why she waited to report the incident, the girl said a conversation with her mother helped jog her memory.

According to the report, her mother believed she herself had been "drugged and raped" by Chung, and that her mother told her about the rape after a discussion with Chung's wife.

The teenager's mother is the victim in the sexual assault counts against Chung.

Contact Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer