I wrote the following about Roy Chi Wing Lung on March 20 of last year: “One of the most bizarre thieves I can recall writing about pleaded guilty this week to stealing surgical equipment from Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and was immediately sentenced to two years in jail.” The 48-year-old former doctor, who obviously moved from Los Alamitos to Aliso Viejo since getting out custody early (Damn you, Jerry Brown!), was busted Sunday for allegedly stealing about $25,000 worth of surgical equipment from Kaiser Permanente's Orange County-Irvine Medical Center (which is … gulp … my hospital).
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Everybody Roy Chi Wing Lung Tonight! Bizarre Hospital Thief Pleads Guilty and Gets Two Years
Lung was wearing hospital scrubs and a wig–his same get-up from crimes past–when he swiped numerous surgical supplies around 4:40 a.m. Sunday, according to Farrah Emami, the Irvine Police Department spokeswoman.
A hospital employee spotted Lung as he was leaving the building and alerted security, who in turn alerted cops. The sticky fingered one is alleged to have had with him a duffel bag stuffed with burglary tools, Emami said in much more professional language than that.
Now Lung is being held without bail, which should allow him to reform in the indentation he made in a jailhouse bunk. Dude is a trip. In 2013, he entered Fountain Valley Regional Hospital in medical scrubs and a wig, but an employee recognized him as someone police were seeking and notified security guards, who called the cops. Lung was arrested as he was driving away from the hospital. Police searched his home and found a stash of stolen surgical equipment. He went on to plead guilty to a felony second-degree burglary. Another felony count of second-degree burglary was dismissed, along with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
That got him to the two years in jail, although his lawyer Ashley K. Kagasoff tells the Weekly the sentence was suspended. Lung may be facing a parole violation with his latest arrest, however.
In 2008, he was at Orange Coast Memorial in Fountain Valley in scrubs as well as a fleece jacket with the hospital's insignia on it, which is not allowed by those not on staff. When an executive confronted him, Lung at first refused to identify himself and claimed he had a right to be there because he was a physician. He later called himself “Dr. Ray Lin” and told police he slept in the doctor quarters, ate meals, took showers, watched television and used telephones and fax machines despite having no privileges at that hospital. For how long? Lung first told cops for two years then changed his story to say he had been doing it for 10 years. Cops later searched his car and found hospital sutures ready to be mailed out and a note from a “Steve” thanking him for his business.
The following year, his medical license was revoked after a hearing regarding “repeated negligent acts in connection with the care and treatment of two patients.” His crashing of hospital doctor quarters and various thefts were also referenced by board investigators. He went on to plead no contest to resisting a peace officer and obstructing a business (Orange Coast Memorial), both misdemeanors, was placed on three years of informal probation and ordered to do 20 days of community service with Caltrans. He admitted he'd sold stuff he'd taken from the hospital.
In 2007, a hospital employee at Orange Coast Memorial confronted Lung, who was wearing scrubs and identified himself as “Dr. Lin.” He declined to produce identification or wait for security, leaving with pockets that “were puffed,” according to a nurse cited in state records. That was three years after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts related to theft of two hospital computers, a computer bag and another physician's parking sticker from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. He spent four days in jail, finished 200 hours of community service and repaid the hospital $5,494.50 in restitution. For completing the terms of probation early, his conviction was set aside.
In 2002-03, two of his patients died, leading to California medical board officials faulting his emergency room care and suspending his license to practice medicine. He was later accused of continuing to practice at a physical therapy office in Pomona while under suspension.
Makes you wonder who this Steve fellow is and what Lung is actually involved in. He's no dummy, having earned a bachelor of science degree in bioengineering from UCLA, graduated from the University of Texas San Antonio medical school and completed graduate training at UC Irvine.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.