Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Doctor Busted for Trying to Hook-Up with Teen, Her Mom for Sex: AG

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Dr. Robert Zewe, 50, spent the weekend in jail in northern Ohio after he was arrested and accused of arranging a meeting for sex with a mother and her 16-year-old daughter, according to Ohio's Attorney General. Dr. Zewe was met instead by members of the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force who placed the ad on a website. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the allegations and the body-worn camera footage of Dr. Zewe's arrest in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Chief Deputy Jeff Allen https://www.facebook.com/mahoningsheriffProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. The man in handcuffs standing outside of the car looks like your average Joe or Bob. What's your name? Bob. Bob, where are you from, Bob? Erie, Pennsylvania. But Bob is a doctor from Pennsylvania accused of trying to meet a young girl and her mom for sex. I'll lay out the story and the body camera footage of his arrest. I work only in the hospital and I take care of the sickest, you know, like the stick is to the sick.

Welcome to crime fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. There's a doctor from Pennsylvania who's in some legal hot water in Ohio. His name is Dr. Robert Zhu. And up until last week, he was a doctor of internal medicine at a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania. But last Friday, Zhu drove from Erie across the state line to Ohio and into Columbia County, a little more than a 90-minute drive southwest. Ohio's attorney general, Dave Yost, says that Dr. Zhu planned to meet a 16-year-old girl and her mom for sex. A body-worn camera was recording during Zuz's arrest by members of the Mahoning Valley

Human Trafficking Task Force. Oh, sure, no, no, no, no, no problem. You live alone? You live alone? You live with somebody? Go ahead. Okay. It's a small of 121. Now, you've probably figured it out by now that that meeting was actually set up by the undercover officers. And they asked Bob Zhu where he works. And he says Penn Highlands health care.

The website used to say he was the chief resident. Now his name and photo have been removed. Yeah, it's a lot. It's an hour and a half. The officers then ask Bob Zhu where his wallet is located. Well, he doesn't take here and then we'll talk to here a little bit, okay? Well, yes, sir. Come on back to my car. The money you're going to use, not one you're like, you know, I don't see that.

I don't know. Is that ready? Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah, I've been in the wallet. Okay. Okay. You put them in your car.

Yeah, I got them. Oh, okay. I'll get farther back here, okay? Yes, sir. We will go in, this Ford Explorer. We're going to go in on the passenger side. It's going to be easy. We'll get to our station.

Passing your side. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What's your name? Bob. Where are you from, Bob? Erie, Pennsylvania. Yeah, like you said, I've never been arrested, but I don't.

Sorry, I don't know everything. Just because I always double-check. Oh, no, no, sir. Oh, no, no, sir, no, sir, no. Oh, no, sir. Oh, sir. Do I go on the clep first? Yep.

Yep. I'm from the great city of Erie. I'm familiar with Erie. What part of you are you from? I'm familiar with Mill Creek. I'm very familiar up there by, is it the harbor, Oak Harbor, or I'm trying to get the name of? El Creek. El Creek, yes, sir.

Thanks, I. Yep. The officer walks back to Bob Zhu's car where the others are searching it, looking for his wallet, and they find it. Danny, where was the money that he was going to use? Did he tell you, is it in the wallet? I got it. You got it? Yeah.

Did we relay his OLN? No. Nope. The officers determined that Bob Zhu didn't drive his own car to Ohio from Pennsylvania. He's a renter wreck on the back. Huh? He's a renter. He's got this in here.

He's going to guess. It's probably rental. He's in the hospital. What's he do for the hospital? He's in internal medicine. doctor position was well yes I think this is I think this is going to be a little more to write up yeah the plane closed officer tells his colleagues there's a jug of urine in the back seat and it sounds like the property where they met up with Bob Zhu was vacant and scheduled to be torn down

You want to run him back? Yeah, I'll run him back. I was living out of, I basically sleep out of my car, so there was some urine in there. I'm sorry, I didn't want you to be exposed. I've been exposed to way worse. I'm sorry. I did have it closed, it's fine. Okay, listen, we're going to run you back to our safety.

going to run you back to our station. Our detective's going to have some additional words for you. We'll give you some instructions what's going on. You're from Erie, Pennsylvania. What do you do for a living? I'm a physician. Okay. Yeah, I was working there tonight.

Okay. Any prior run-ins with law enforcement? Never. Obviously. Okay. You know, the best in the arena hole is stop digging, right? So when I get you back, I'm sorry. The best of you were in a hole is stop digging.

So let's, when we get back to the station, just be cooperative, be respectful, and we'll get you through all this, okay? Of course, sir. Okay. The insight. Okay. Yeah. The officer drives Bob Zhu to the police department and takes him into a room.

What's that, partner? Okay, I was waiting for you here. I appreciate it. No problem. I'm pretty informal, okay? I didn't want you to think that I was being aggressive. Hang out right there at 911. We're going to go back in here.

I'll get you all squared away, okay? Get those cuffs off. Contrary of popular, I believe they don't stretch out as they stay on. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's a joke. No, we're going to write, okay? I don't know, sir, they do not.

They don't? No, sir. Swing in here with me. Yes, sir. I'm going to get those off, you okay? Make sure this door shut. Oh, sure. You're right-handed or left-handed?

I'm actually Andy Dexter. Andy, huh? Yes, but I do right with my right-hand. I throw with my left. I'm one of those oddballs where I am right-handed, but I wear my watch on my right-hand. Have a seat right there, okay? Yes, sir. There's a reason Crime Fix is one of the top-Rank.

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eight clicks. So if you're ever hurt, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash crime fix by clicking the link below or scanning that QR code that you see on your screen. This is an officer from the East Palestine Police Department, and I must say, he's one of the friendliest I've heard in a long time. Knock, no. Is that an article? Am I going to do my thing with him? Yeah, you go ahead. You think that interview?

Yeah. Okay. Oh, I hate that sun when it sets. It gets right my eyes. Hey, it's not like that. No. No, it's not. The officer and zoo engage in some small talk.

Erie, Pennsylvania. I just hang around up there. It was Brook Harbor, Harbor, something like that. It was by, um, straight up. It was by the airport. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay, yes, yes, yes.

I know where you're at. You're from up at it? You're from that area? Yes, sir. That's where I live. Okay. Up around that area. Yeah, I used to run around that area.

That impressed Isle. Yeah. Yeah. Prescott's beautiful. It's some of the best sunsets in the fall. It is. And there's like what, like seven beaches there? Yeah.

Actually, there's a 13. But then on the other side is where you can fish. Uh-huh. Because that's where my dad and I used to go. We used to go and fish. Stealys or what? Smallmouth. Stealies?

Yeah. I don't make it up like I used to. My uncle is a big sports fisherman. And he, he, well, he had before he got cancer. I mean, he used to go out on the boats and everything. He had like two different little boats, 17-footer, and then like a smaller one stuff. And then he got oral cancer and lung cancer. Is that before you went to medicine?

Yes, yes, sir. What this officer is doing, he's building a rapport with Bob Zhu, who's a pretty chatty guy. We had a really good gig. I used to work for a level one trauma center over in Akron called Summa Health. Oh, yeah. That's where I graduated from. Would your residency there? Yeah, I did my residency.

I went to Akron General and I did Internal Medicine Pediatrics. So I used to take care of adults and kids. But then they closed their program. So they were like, oh, well, we don't have a spot for you. So I called Summa. And Summa's like, oh, yeah, we'll take you. Where did you do residency at? I started my residency at Akron General.

Okay. Doing internal medicine, pediatrics with Dr. The conversation continues. So you got to see that the traumas, you got the best all the world. The things that I have seen, and I, like, I knock on wood, you know, superstition. But I knock on wood that I am very grateful for the training that I've received because it was tough and it was hard. Because I'll tell you now, me being 50 years old. old, stupid obviously, smart but stupid, being 50 years old and seeing the young dogs now,

oh my God, they are, I'm scared. I'm scared for my future in terms of trying, if I get sick. Yeah. Because we were trained to work, you know, work, work, work. And I mean, I would see the highest amount of patients ever saw one day was 68 when I was there. The discussion then turns to Dr. Zoo's personal life. So what did you do after residency? Are you married? No, never married. Never married?

I have one son, and I have one other way. I have one son. He's 10 years old. His mother was an ICU nurse. We were just friends. And I ended up leaving the hospital going somewhere else and she literally tracked me down.

Listen, I was a hospital coffee. I got to tell me about those nurses. I know all about it. I swear I got, all I was, I was nice. I'm generally. nice. I'm generally nice. So I would compliment, I'd compliment

people when you do a good job. You know, I'd catch you on the back, say, good job. I'm not, ooh, hey, oh. No, no. But, I mean... So that's your oldest boy's mama. Yeah, that's my oldest boy's mother. And a woman that I'm currently with is, it's like a surrogacy plan. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, because of everything that had gone wrong was the other one, with the first mom. So that was like an arrangement that she made a greet on, and you guys all got all that lined up. And she's like, okay, We'll have the baby together, but, you know, I want to be in the baby's life, that you will have, you will have full custody. Who's going to be the custodial at, you? Hi.

I'm going to be the custodial. I make all the final decisions with the baby, but she's going to be there, you know, along the way. Oh, I hope you got that in writing. Oh, God, I did. Yes, sir. You're something smart guy. I'm sure you probably did. Yes, sir.

Then the officer turns to the real business of the day, the reason why they're there. So, Bob, is what I want to do. do is I'd like to talk to you about some stuff, but I'm going to read you some rights first, okay? First things first, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can be as against you in court. It's the right to have an attorney. You're right to have an attorney present with you during any questioning. Should you not be able to afford attorney, you want to be fried to you free of charge. Should you choose to answer questions without an attorney present, you can stop doing so any point in time. Do you understand those

rights? Yes, sir. Okay. With that said, I'd kind of like to really see more of you of what happened here and paint a picture of what brought you to a situation like this because I don't think you're a bad guy. I think sometimes loneliness takes a hell of a toll. And unfortunately, that was what did it. Okay. Listen, understanding your rights.

Yes, sir. Can you and I talk? Yes, sir. Okay. The body camera footage released to us cuts off right there. An affidavit outlines the allegations that task force officers are making against Dr. Zhu. Part of it states, affiant states that an undercover familial ad was posted on unknown prostitution website of an adult mother trafficking her 16-year-old juvenile daughter. Affiant states that the defendant responded to the post ad and arranged to have sexual activity with both females in exchange for U.S. currency.

Affiant states that the defendant arrived at the meeting location to have sexual activity, with both females, including the minor, and was found to have in his possession, his cellular device, which was used to arrange the criminal act and the currency and condoms. Dr. Zeus spent the weekend in the Columbiana County Jail. He appeared in court earlier this week and pleaded not guilty to the charges. Those charges, a third-degree felony of compelling prostitution, possessing criminal tools. That's a felony of the fifth degree, and a misdemeanor charge of engaging in prostitution. So to discuss this arrest of Dr. Robert Zhu, I want to bring in Chief Deputy Jeff Allen of the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office, also the commander of the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force. So Chief Deputy Allen, thank you so much for joining me.

Tell me a little bit about this arrest. We see this doctor, Dr. Zhu from Pennsylvania. He's awfully cordial and polite on the bodyworn camera footage. But yeah, totally. He's being accused by you all of arranging for a meetup for sex with a 16-year-old girl and her mother. And it wasn't really them, though, obviously. It was the cops. Correct. As you know, we're a task force sponsored by the Attorney General's OCIC office. And one of their initiatives is all kinds of different things. So we start out doing John's things underage, predators, things, and stuff like that. We mix them in there sometimes. So we'll throw a sting out on one of the various websites where we are purporting ourselves to be a mother and trafficking our daughter, actually using it both, the mother-daughter experience.

That's the way it's advertised. And surprising enough, we do get hits on that. I mean, not surprising to me anymore, but it wasn't the beginning. yeah i mean this is a doctor and i mean nothing surprises me anymore um because it doesn't matter what profession somebody is in but this is somebody who works in says he works in internal medicine i think uh one of the websites says he was like the chief resident or something um of where the place you know the place where he was working i mean i don't know anybody can do anything you know and he's innocent until proven guilty, of course.

But we're talking about somebody arranging a meeting for sex with who he thought was a woman, allegedly, and her 16-year-old daughter. Just, I mean, the ick factor on that is just really gross. And, you know, he thought that he was going to be having sex with a woman and her daughter together, allegedly. This is what you guys are saying. so I went on the website the it's it's like the new back page I guess and I you know I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but it was gross and so I'm wondering I mean how busy are you guys up there in the Mahoning Valley because you're a task force there's obviously an issue you're seeing so so what's going on walking to your your valley there the Mahoning Valley to arrange hookups for sex Well, first I'd like to start out by saying nothing surprises me either. Since I've been doing this in 2016, this is the one part of my career where I have learned that it is not a surprise at all to see somebody coming through the door in the human trafficking investigation part of this.

You know, before I did drugs, yeah, you know who's coming through the door, drug dealers, people looking for drugs themselves. This one is always a surprise. So I don't get surprised anymore either. We've gotten a lot of high-profile people sometimes. So the Attorney General, one of their things are stings. So two people I have assigned to my human trafficking task force are doing this full-time pretty much hit or miss every day. They're doing some kind of sting. I want everybody to know that when they're online, this is actually Sheriff Jerry Green's quote.

I want everybody to know that if they're online, there's a chance they're talking to a police officer. That's how aggressive we are with these ads, having people do that. Because if you look at human trafficking, it is just like any other form of crime. There's supply and demand. If there was no demand, there'd be no supply. So if I had nobody looking to purchase illegal sex or sleep with minors, I'd have nobody being trafficked. That's the way we look at it. we're very aggressive down here in Mahoney Valley doing the sting operations and and stuff like that.

I do believe it does help. Now, in this case specifically, because the minor was the age of 16, the minor, that's under Ohio statute, the minor at that age, can legally consent to sex. 16 legal is the age of consent in Ohio. So that's why you did not see the attempt in a lawful sexual conduct with a minor. Was Dr. Zhu kind of like, oh, is that why the cops, you know, the ruse was a 16-year-old? Was he like, oh, no, 15's way too young for me? Or, I mean, how did that all unfold? Are you able to tell us anything about that?

Well, first off, I can't talk about the chats right yet. The case is still in the beginning. I think it was just arranged, if it even was arranged yet. So I don't want to talk about the chats, but there's time. where we chat for a little bit before we give the age to see what the feeling of what the person's like but a lot of times the ad the ad states it the ad states it right right there so when you're going for a compelling prostitution charge as long as that that individual is purported to be a

minor under 18 years of age you're fine I understand there's an age of consent which is 16 if we would have said we were 15 in that there would have been an attempt on lawful sexual conduct with a minor charge accompanying the other charges so so dr zoo was very compliant very cordial as i mentioned earlier you know the cops were like where's the money we're going to use so some of this was hard to hear on the body worn camera but it sounds like you know he was basically pretty up front like yeah the money you know is in my in my wallet in the compartment like it's almost like he was you know fessing up to it like he was caught you know they had him dead to rates so um and he knew it so you know yikes we're

what do you do with this and are you like looking through his phone because i'm kind of my mind goes to what's on his phone because if he's arranging this stuff is he watching this stuff correct um we are going through the phone right now um uh we we don't every phone we get we don't I do find not a lot of the percentage of people that we arrest for these type of crimes have CSAM child sexual abuse material on their phones, but we do find it on occasion. You would think we would find it on the majority of them, but we do not, which is a good thing. But we will dump this phone and have it analyzed and anything that's on it could accompany more charges. He actually admitted to it. He actually said he knew it was wrong. wrong. He was very sympathetic, acted, very sympathetic at least, and gave us no problems at all during

the arrest, and a lot of them don't. Interesting. You know, there have been some other arrests that you guys have made, and I know that the AG's office kind of listed some of them. You know, there was a guy who identified himself as a teacher, this Michael Ford of Cleveland Heights. He was arrested for engaging in prostitution. There's some other guy of Ravina. Jackson Whartman, attempting to do this. You know, it's just, it just seems like you're, you might be kind of putting your fingers in the holes, you know, trying to plug the dike, you know, every day.

Like, what's, I mean, you said they're working on this every day. So it's an endless, endless problem. Here's the funny thing. And you just said you're poking your fingers in the dam. And I kind of agree with you. There's no bad thing to this. Like, police gauge themselves on their arrest and trying to stop crime. So doing these type of operations, the less you get, the more success it is to us,

even though your arrest aren't up or your statistics aren't up, that means you're doing something right. So we started doing these underage predators things online, predators things probably six years ago, maybe five years ago, and we started doing them every year. And the first time we did it, we got 10 people thinking maybe if we can scare these people I stopped the second time we got 12 the third time we got 16 then we got 18 then we got 21 so I don't I don't know why that is I mean I want people scared so it doesn't seem to be reducing that number so I don't want to say I'm

putting my fingers in the holes of the dam what I'm trying to do is control it as best as we can here in our valley and we did a sting in another jurisdiction where we assisted, where the numbers were usually pretty high because we did a four day sting. They happen to be lower this time. So hopefully it is working. I don't want these arrests. If these arrests come, that means I don't want people looking for this. So I would love to do a sting like this one day and have zero arrests. I would love that. You know, I've always heard too by the time somebody gets caught, they've probably done something quite a few times. So is that what you see? Do you think this is something that maybe Dr. Zhu has attempted before or has done before?

Don't know. We're going to look through other conversations on his phone. We will find that out. But sometimes we're on here looking for people looking for children. But there's times there's people that say, I really wasn't on there looking for a child, but then you purported yourself as a child. And he didn't stop. I'm looking for that too.

I'm looking for somebody that can't pass up their temptation either. So, because there's always children online. So if you're a person that's actually looking for a child online, I'm coming after you. If you're somebody that's online looking for an adult, you're also trying to usually purchase sex illegally. I'm going after you also. But if you are not looking for a child and I purport myself, my unit purports myself as a child and you still keep talking and agree to meet, I'm looking for them too. Even though they weren't looking for a child right off the bat, they couldn't pass it up. So I'm looking for everybody like that.

Everybody. He had an air mattress in the car and a jug of urine. So he's obviously like, I think he's relieving himself in the jug of urine. I mean, I don't know. Maybe there was something else going on with that. Do you think he was actually using that sleeping out of his car? Do you think this was for the meeting he thought he was going to engage in? Or what do you think was going on there?

I haven't got there yet. I mean, he is, from what I understand, he's a minimum. midnight turn doctor so I mean does he take that to the hospital with him but do they not have sleeping quarters when you're on your long rotation does he use all that there I don't know I have no answer to that he did have an air mattress he did have a urine bottle in his car he had no other living supplies though so I don't know we're still deal uh I mean that that's something that's not criminal so I'm not gonna really dig in deep to that but if I find something on on his phone obviously we'll know but um yeah I

I can't answer that. I don't know what he was doing. Interesting. Well, it's a pretty wild case to me. I mean, as I said earlier, you get people from all different kinds of backgrounds arrested for these types of crimes, but you hope when you're walking into a doctor's office or when you're sending your kids to school, that you're sending them to places where this type of thing is not going on. But, you know, people have different masks that they wear every day. I agree with you 100%. And this job here with human trafficking has taught me not to be surprised at all. Throughout the years, if you saw the professions or what they did for a living or their family situations, you'd be very surprised too. But I'm not anymore. I'm not. When you used to do these other crimes, you know drug dealers are coming and you know who's coming through the door.

On this one, you have no clues. You don't know if your neighbor's coming. You don't know if a family member's coming. Yeah, it's actually eye-opening. Yeah. Well, Chief Deputy Jeff Allen, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. I thank you.

And I reached out to Bob Zoo's attorney for comment. At the time of this recording, he has not yet responded to my request for comment. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time. Thank you.