LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Monday overturned the conviction of James Heaps, a former campus gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was convicted on sex abuse charges.
The appeals court's ruling mandates a retrial after finding that Heaps was denied a fair trial. Concerns were raised regarding one juror's proficiency in English, which may have affected deliberations.
Heaps was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2023 for sexually abusing female patients during his career at UCLA, with allegations spanning a 35-year period. The university faced nearly $700 million in lawsuits connected to the claims against him.
He pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts, with allegations involving seven women between 2009 and 2018. He was convicted in October 2022 on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of patients, with a jury deadlocking on several other charges.
Following his original conviction and sentencing, an appellate court ruling noted issues with juror qualifications raised shortly after the juror’s substitution.
“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 appellate panel stated. “However, the importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures in a criminal trial gives us no other choice.”
