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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

    Tracy doctor gets six-year prison sentence

     

    Former Tracy plastic surgeon Peter Chi heard the fury of his victims Monday before a judge sentenced him to spend six years in state prison and register for life as a sex offender.

    “”He mutilated not only my body but my spirit,”” a woman who identified herself as Renee told the judge. “”Today is judgment day.””

    Upon sentencing, a probation report also became public, revealing that Chi made $250,000 a year as a doctor, grew up in a healthy home and appears to be a good husband and father.

    Charges against Chi, 48, surfaced two years ago, and he pleaded guilty in December to sexually battering 36 women. He ran Beauty Renewed in Tracy and also worked from an office in Stockton.

    His victims ranged in age from 15 to 62. Court records say he touched the women’s genitalia for his own sexual gratification. Many of them were under anesthesia at the time.

    About a dozen women and their supporters came to court for the sentencing. Two stood to speak about the grief Chi left them feeling.

    Renee said Chi not only sexually assaulted her but also botched her cosmetic surgery. To this day, she feels scalp pain and numbness in one ear, she said.

    “”I feel like I was in a major car accident,”” she said.

    Another woman, who identified herself only as Casey, said she smiles quietly when she imagines Chi at Deuel Vocational Institution, a prison near Tracy. Relatives of his victims are held there as inmates or work there as guards, she said.

    “”DVI is not a pleasant place,”” she said.

    Chi, who was accompanied to court by his wife and attorneys, said nothing in the hearing. But he gave an interview to a probation officer before his sentencing, which included a brief statement.

    “”I accept complete responsibility for my actions, and I am very sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused the victims and their families,”” Chi wrote.

    The probation report also said Chi was an only child. At age 10, he and his parents moved from Taiwan. His mother was a nurse, and his father ran an import business, the report says.

    He and his wife of 17 years, Helena, have a son and a daughter, ages 13 and 8. He ran the profitable medical office in Tracy for 12 years. He had never been arrested before nor sought mental health counseling, the report says.

    “”He is a family man with an intact family and regularly attends church,”” the report says. Chi scored low as a risk to offend again, the report says.

    Yet San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Xapuri Villapudua chastised Chi for taking advantage of mothers, daughters and sisters. Those women sought him out to make themselves feel better, not to suffer, she said.

    In a hearing set for June 6, the judge will consider unsealing transcripts of the grand jury that indicted Chi. The victims who spoke asked the judge to keep them sealed forever.

    Chi, who faced up to 39 years in prison at trial, will have to serve at least three years of his sentence before he becomes eligible for release on parole.

    At the hearing’s close, one woman seated among his victims leaned forward in her seat to see a bailiff place Chi in handcuffs and escort him away.

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