Woman describes alleged attack in wake of Asheville acupuncturist sex assault charges

Editor's note: This story contains descriptions of alleged sexual assault.

ASHEVILLE — Two weeks after six more potential victims reported to Asheville police that they were sexually assaulted by Asheville acupuncturist Shi Ying Kuai, one of his patients shared her experience on his acupuncture table with the Citizen Times. A local acupuncture expert, who knows Kuai professionally, provided context on accepted professional practice.

One of Kuai’s alleged victims — the Citizen Times does not name victims of sexual assault without their permission — said she had three appointments with the acupuncturist in August, after he was highly recommended to her by a male friend. During their first session, everything was normal. But in the second session with Kuai, the victim said she got a “sixth sense” about him, saying he started to seem like a “creeper.”

“Your defenses about how concerned you need to be go down when you have somebody that much older, and that frail,” she told the Citizen Times. “But I was very clear that he was lecherous.”

Kuai, 90, was first arrested Sept. 26 and charged with felony second-degree forcible sex offense and misdemeanor sexual battery, according to an APD news release. After six more potential victims came forward, Kuai was rearrested and charged with two additional counts of sexual battery.

But despite her senses, the 40-year-old patient went back for a third session to help with her chronic pain. Before the acupuncture was performed, the victim said she was lying on the table, and without saying a word, Kuai unzipped her high-waisted pants and rolled them down. At that time, she said “I felt like I was out of my body,” like she was “hovering in the room.”

What are professional standards for acupuncture sessions?

“I’ve never heard of an acupuncturist removing someone’s clothes — that would be considered crossing a professional boundary from my perspective,” Cissy Majebe told the Citizen Times earlier in October.

Majebe is a licensed acupuncturist, president of a four-year acupuncture college, Daoist Traditions, in Asheville, and was on North Carolina’s first acupuncture licensing board in 1993, helping to write the laws that govern the practice of acupuncture in the state.

Majebe, who knows Kuai professionally, said he opened a clinic in his Arlington Street home immediately after receiving his license in 1995. She’s served on the N.C. Acupuncture Licensing Board “four or five times” and said she has never come across any type of complaint regarding Kuai.

“We all show people different faces,” Majebe said. “And because of who I am, he was always perfectly responsible with me. But it’s obvious that’s because of the position I held, and I was never on his treatment table.”

“As a rule, (patients) have to be draped,” Majebe also said. “And that can be with the clothes they have on or if you're doing points, let’s say it’s high up on the leg by the hipbone, then they have towels that are covering the whole body.”

More: WNC man guilty of statutory child rape, multiple child sex crimes, sentenced to 50 years

"It's all ... discombobulating"

Back in the acupuncture room, the victim said she made a self-deprecating joke about the size of her belly “to break the tension” after Kuai allegedly rolled down her pants with his own hands.

She said Kuai then said she should start working out in the morning and started rubbing her stomach with his hands in a clockwise position, running into her breasts with each circular motion.

“A lot of the things he does are on the line until it’s very clearly no longer on the line,” the victim told the Citizen Times, reflecting on the moment. “It’s all very discombobulating.”

Kuai then held the victim’s breasts and said, “now you do it,” she said.

The woman said she made another self-effacing joke and started rubbing her belly.

“And I’m just lying there, feeling like an alien in the room," the patient said. "I felt like I was hovering in the room, being like ‘what is about to happen here?’”

After the acupuncture was completed and the needles were out, Kuai said, “you should come be with me” to the victim, to which she responded that she’s married.

She said they went back and forth for a moment, Kuai repeating that she should come be with him and she responding that he has a wife.

“I’m sitting back down on the bed and he’s standing next to me. And then he says ‘yes, but she hasn’t given me …’ then he reaches out and physically grabs my boobs and grabs my crotch and says, ‘in 30 years,’” the woman told the Citizen Times.

She said Kuai called her weeks later to “try and get me to schedule another appointment.” She said her “heart started racing,” and she made an excuse as to why she couldn’t schedule another session with him.

The 40-year-old said she came forward after seeing the bravery of the first potential victim to report Kuai to the Asheville Police Department, which led to his felony charge of second-degree forcible sex offense.

“What he did to me was minor, but I wasn’t going to let her stand alone,” the woman told the Citizen Times. “It's our duty to not let people stand alone when we’ve been in a situation like that.”

More: 2 more sexual abuse charges filed for Asheville acupuncturist; 6 more people come forward

Can acupuncture needles immobilize patients?

The first alleged victim to report the 90-year-old acupuncturist said they sought treatment from Kuai in August at his clinic, and during their acupuncture session, they were sexually assaulted, according to an APD news release. Kuai knew the victim was “physically helpless” when he allegedly assaulted the victim Aug. 22 by “insert(ing) his fingers into (the victim’s) vagina,” according to an APD arrest warrant.

The other victim to come forward, who spoke with the Citizen Times, said she feels like she’s one of the lucky ones because she didn’t have needles in her when Kuai made inappropriate advances, unlike the experience of other victims she knows of. She spoke of a sensation she’s never felt during acupuncture before Kuai, and the complete fear she would have felt if he had done something while the needles were in.

“Whatever his technique is where he does immobilize you, because he did do that to me, he just did not then assault me,” the woman said. “But he did immobilize me.”

Majebe said she is not going to question the experience of someone who was sexually abused; however, she did state that “acupuncture needles do not immobilize a person.”

“That’s not something that happens with Chinese medicine,” Majebe told the Citizen Times. “If you did paralyze somebody, there would be a medical judgment against you.”

Majebe also said that acupuncture patients should very rarely be completely naked on the table. Only 1 in 300 cases require patients to remove all their clothing, like in the case of rectal carcinoma, Majebe said.

“If he has patients totally naked on the table, that is not standard procedure for acupuncture at all,” Majebe told the Citizen Times. “Draping is a major part of our training, and how to drape a person to where you are not actively accessing any of their private areas.”

Kuai 'indefinitely suspended' from national certifying body

In North Carolina, acupuncturists must have a National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine certification before they are licensed, which includes an ethics exam. They are also required to undergo four years of acupuncture school after they’ve received an undergraduate degree.

Kuai is under immediate indefinite suspension from NCCAOM starting Sept. 28, “while the national certifying body conducts a thorough investigation into this matter” through its Professional Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, according to a statement from the credentialing body.

Kuai asked to surrender license: NC Acupuncture Board to Asheville acupuncturist charged with assault: surrender license

“The immediate actions taken by the PEDC prevents individuals like Mr. Kuai from practicing in other states while investigations proceed,” Michael Taromina, NCCAOM PEDC Chair, said in an Oct. 2 news release.

“Moving forward we will closely monitor North Carolina Licensing Board’s investigation as we conduct ours,” Taromina said. “The PEDC’s active role in collaborating with all state licensing boards is critical to the safety and well-being of patients nationwide.”

NCCAOM has written grounds for professional discipline, which include:

• Failing to maintain professional boundaries in relationships with patients, or in any way exploiting the practitioner/patient trust.

• Engaging in sexual contact with a current patient if the contact commences after the practitioner/patient relationship is established.

Anyone can file a formal complaint for violations of professional ethics against acupuncturists operating under a NCCAOM certification.

Kuai faces three counts of sexual battery and a felony charge of second-degree forcible sex offense. He was released from the Buncombe County Detention Center after paying his bond. His next court date is Oct. 18.

The Citizen Times reached out to Kuai's assigned public defender, who declined to comment.

Need help?

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted and needs help or resources, contact:

• Our Voice: (For ages 13 and older) 828-255-7576, www.ourvoicenc.org.

• Mountain Child Advocacy Center: (For ages 17 and younger), 828-213-9824, https://mtncac.org.

• RAINN: (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) 800-656-4673, www.rainn.org.

• Family Justice Center: 35 Woodfin St., Asheville. 828-250-6900, buncombecounty.org.

Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Woman details alleged sex offense by suspended Asheville acupuncturist