Ex-UCLA gynecologist sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing patients
A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles was sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing patients over his more than three-decade career.
Dr. James Heaps, 66, appeared in the Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday and was sentenced after being convicted in October of three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of two patients. A jury acquitted him of seven other charges.
Judge Michael D. Carter also ordered Heaps to register as a sex offender, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said.
Heaps had pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts in the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. The jury found him not guilty of seven of the 21 counts and was deadlocked on the remaining charges.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his office was "disappointed" in the jury's decision to acquit Heaps on several counts, an October press release states.
The former doctor, who retired in 2018, was arrested in June 2019 and his medical license was suspended by court order.
Heaps was indicted in 2021 on multiple counts each of sexual battery by fraud, sexual exploitation of a patient and sexual penetration of an unconscious person by fraudulent representation.
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Hundreds of patients and a $700M payout
Scores of patients have accused Heaps of sexual assault and sexual misconduct between 1983 and 2018, when he worked at the UCLA student health center and UCLA Medical Center.
UCLA patients said Heaps groped them, made suggestive comments or conducted unnecessarily invasive exams during his 35-year career. Women who brought the lawsuits said the university ignored their complaints and deliberately concealed abuse that happened for decades during examinations at the UCLA student health center, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center or in Heaps’ campus office.
In February 2022, the university announced it had agreed to pay $243.6 million to settle allegations hundreds of women were sexually abused by Heaps. In the end, that number rose to nearly $700 million in payouts – a record amount by a public university amid a wave of sexual misconduct scandals by campus doctors in recent years.
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Contributing: The Associated Press.
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for Paste BN. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.