Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Tony Shiu - Ex-Doctor sentenced to ONLY 7 years for molesting patients

The prosecutor said Shiu "has shown no remorse and made no apologies" and alleged that he would have continued to molest more people if a few courageous victims hadn't come forward to authorities.


A former Dublin physician was sentenced Wednesday to seven years and four months in state prison for committing sexual crimes against four men and a 13-year-old boy.
Tony Shiu, 40, pleaded no contest on May 14 to eight felony counts and one misdemeanor count, and was sentenced in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward by Judge Henry Ramsey.

The felony charges to which he pleaded are three counts of sexual battery, two counts of administering a controlled substance, two counts of poisoning and one count of lewd and lascivious acts on a minor.

He also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Herb Walters, who investigated the case, said detectives who searched Shiu's home in Dublin on Sept. 8, 2006, found about 450 digital photographs of at least 10 exposed men in medical settings who appeared to be unconscious.

The arrest warrant for Shiu alleged that he drugged two men on Aug. 18, 2006, and sodomized one of them.
The two men alleged that they began a night out at Shiu's home and woke up the next day, on Aug. 19, with no recollection of the night before. Police said one of the men had never met Shiu previously, but the other was Shiu's friend and patient.

Shiu fled the Bay Area in September 2006 after learning that authorities were investigating him.

Alameda County investigators tracked Shiu to Taiwan, where he had been living under an assumed name. He was arrested at San Francisco International Airport on May 29, 2008, after being deported from Taiwain.

Shiu practiced private general internal medicine. The Medical Board of California suspended his license in July 2007.

The Alameda County Sheriff's Department, which also functions as Dublin's police department, began investigating Shiu in August 2006 when two men said they believed they had been sexually abused by Shiu.

The two men said they had planned to attend a bachelor's party at Shiu's home on Aug. 18, 2006, but woke up the next day with no recollection of the night before. Police said one of the men had never met Shiu previously, but the other was Shiu's friend and patient.

Through testing, it was revealed that both men had drugs in their system. The arrest warrant for Shiu alleged that he sodomized one of the men.

Sheriff's Sgt. Herb Walters, who investigated the case, said detectives who searched Shiu's home in Dublin on Sept. 8, 2006, found about 450 digital photographs of 19 male patients who were unconscious and semi-nude in medical examination rooms.

Hilton, who asked that Shiu be sentenced to the maximum term possible, called the former doctor "a sexual predator" who molested other men not out of lust and passion but in order to "exercise power over friends and sick people who came to the hospital" and were vulnerable.
Hilton said Shiu displayed criminal sophistication in drugging people and "he was the one in control and who could hurt people."

Although only five victims were cited in the charges against Shiu, Hilton said, "He had many, many, many victims and he touched them in a way they will always remember."
The prosecutor said Shiu "has shown no remorse and made no apologies" and alleged that he would have continued to molest more people if a few courageous victims hadn't come forward to authorities.

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