Ph.D. Student Allegedly Confessed to Drugging, Raping Multiple Women Before Pleading Not Guilty: Prosecutors By Christine Pelisek

A University of Southern California student allegedly admitted to drugging and sexually assaulting three women, according to a prosecutor’s motion filed on Sept. 2, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The alleged assaults occurred when Sizhe “Steven” Weng, 30, was enrolled as a doctoral student at USC between 2021 and 2024.

Weng has been charged with forcible rape, sodomy by controlled substance or anesthesia, rape by controlled substance and sexual penetration by controlled substance or anesthesia, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. He has pleaded not guilty.

According to the motion obtained by the Times, Weng confessed to the assaults to detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department after he was arrested on Aug. 28.

Weng’s alleged victims include two friends from China and a classmate in Weng’s doctoral program, per the motion.

According to the motion, one of Weng’s victims was drugged with benzodiazepine pills while at a San Diego bar with Weng in December 2021. At their hotel, he allegedly used a syringe and tubing to inject her anus with the sedative midazolam and covered her face with a towel soaked in the anesthetic medication sevoflurane before tying her up with leather straps and sexually assaulting her, per the Times.

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He also photographed and filmed her “in sexually compromising positions,” according to the motion, the outlet reported.

Police searched Weng’s residence and allegedly discovered sexually explicit Polaroid images — as well as midazolam, leather straps, syringes, red tubing and dental mouth devices, the motion states, per the Times.

The investigation began after the LAPD received a tip from German authorities about the student, Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton told NBC Los Angeles.

Weng enrolled as a Ph.D student in electrical engineering at USC in August 2020 and began working as a Teacher’s Assistant in 2023, according to his Linkedin profile.

USC said they are cooperating with the police investigation, adding that the university had “already taken appropriate steps to bar the individual in question from campus pending resolution of the criminal proceedings.”

“Providing a safe environment for learning, teaching, and research is our top priority,” USC said in a statement previously shared with PEOPLE.

Weng is being held without bail.

His attorney, Daniel Perlman, tells PEOPLE his client is “innocent as a matter of law,” and that they “will vigorously defend against these outrageous claims.”

“We hope the media will use the same size headlines for his acquittal as they have now used for his arrest,” Perlman said.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.