Appeals court overturns former UCLA gynecologist’s sex abuse conviction
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Monday overturned the conviction of a former campus gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, on sex abuse charges.
James Heaps was sentenced in 2023 to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing female patients.
The ruling ordered the case to be sent back for retrial. A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Heaps was denied a fair trial because his defense counsel was not made aware of a note pointing out concerns that one juror lacked sufficient English to carry out their duties.
Heaps was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of patients during his 35-year career and UCLA made nearly $700 million in payouts over lawsuits connected to the allegations.
He pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts in the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. He was convicted in October 2022 of three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of two patients. The jury found him not guilty of seven of the 21 counts and was deadlocked on the remaining charges.
After his conviction and sentencing, a judge ruled that he could be retried on the deadlocked charges.
In the 31-page ruling, the appellate court panel noted that within about one hour of Juror No. 15’s substitution as a juror, concerns were raised about whether the person was qualified to be a juror. They also said the foreman wrote a note indicating that Juror No. 15 did not speak English well enough to participate in the deliberations.
“We recognize the burden on the trial court and regrettably, on the witnesses, in requiring retrial of a case involving multiple victims and delving into the conduct of intimate medical examinations,” the panel stated in its ruling. “The importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures in a criminal trial gives us no other choice.”