A former University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gynaecologist has pleaded guilty to 13 felony sexual abuse charges and been sentenced to 11 years in prison. James Heaps entered the plea on Tuesday in connection with the sexual assault of several patients over his career.
Heaps was originally sentenced in 2023 to 11 years after being convicted of five counts of sexual battery and penetration involving two patients. However, an appeals court overturned that sentence in February, ruling that he had been denied a fair trial because the judge did not share with his lawyers a note from the court foreman expressing concerns about a juror’s English proficiency.
Instead of facing a new trial, Heaps pleaded guilty to 13 felonies involving five victims and received the same 11-year prison term. He must also register as a sex offender for life. After the original conviction was overturned, his attorney Leonard Levine said he believed it was “just a matter of time before he is totally exonerated”. Levine did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the guilty plea.
The renowned campus gynaecologist was indicted in 2021 on multiple counts of sexual battery by fraud, sexual exploitation of a patient, and sexual penetration of an unconscious person by fraudulent representation. The charges were linked to the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. In the wake of the scandal that erupted after his arrest in 2019, UCLA agreed to pay nearly $700m in lawsuit settlements to hundreds of Heaps’s patients – a record sum by a public university amid a wave of sexual misconduct scandals involving campus doctors.
Patients alleged that Heaps groped them, made suggestive comments, or conducted unnecessarily invasive exams during his 35-year career. John Manly, who represented more than 200 former patients in lawsuits against the university, said the guilty plea and sentence sent a clear message that “there will be severe consequences for any violation of patients’ rights and dignity”.
