Conviction against ex-UCLA gynecologist James Heaps overturned, appeals court orders retrial
A California appeals court ordered a retrial after overturning a conviction against former UCLA gynecologist James Heaps, citing concerns about a possible language barrier with one of the jurors who found the doctor guilty of sex-related charges.
In October 2022, a jury found Heaps guilty of five charges out of a 21-count indictment and acquitted him of seven. Judge Michael Carter, who presided over the case, declared a mistrial on the final nine counts on which jurors were deadlocked.
According to the appeals court's 31-page ruling, the panel found that Judge Carter sent his judicial assistant to speak to the jury about a foreperson's note describing the jurors' collective concern that one of their cohorts did not speak English well enough to deliberate with the group and had already made up his mind.
The appeals court found that the note raised concerns about the juror's capability to serve without a firm enough grasp of English.
On behalf of the panel, Acting Presiding Justice Helen I. Bendix wrote, "it is undisputed, including by the trial judge, that the court did not inform counsel of the note and counsel had no opportunity to suggest questions to the judge."
"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," Judge Bendix wrote. "The importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures in a criminal trial gives us no other choice."
In April 2023, Judge Carter sentenced Heaps to 11 years in prison, hours after rejecting a motion for a new trial. Heaps had faced a maximum sentence of 13 years.
While sentencing the former doctor, Judge Carter said he received at least 75 character letters on Heaps' behalf, many of which were stories of him saving his patients' lives. He said Heaps was "by all accounts a world-renowned gynecologist specializing in oncology."
"But this reputation also serves as an aggravating factor because it caused the victims in this case to entrust their bodies and lives to him," the judge said. "It was because of this reputation that he was able to take advantage of the vulnerable position that these victims were in."
More than 500 lawsuits were filed against Heaps and UCLA, accusing the school of failing to protect patients after becoming aware of the misconduct.
In May 2022, attorneys for 312 former patients of Heaps announced a $374 million settlement of abuse lawsuits against the University of California.
The settlement came on top of a $243.6 million resolution of lawsuits involving about 200 patients announced in February 2022, and a $73 million settlement of federal lawsuits previously reached involving roughly 5,500 plaintiffs. In 2022, settlement attorneys said Heaps treated about 6,000 patients.
The lawsuits alleged that UCLA actively and deliberately concealed Heaps' sexual abuse of patients. UCLA continued to allow Heaps to have unfettered sexual access to female patients, many of whom were cancer patients, at the university, plaintiffs' attorneys alleged in the lawsuits.
UCLA denounced Heaps in a 2022 statement.
"The conduct alleged to have been committed by Heaps is reprehensible and contrary to our values," UCLA wrote. "We are grateful to all those who came forward, and hope this settlement is one step toward providing some level of healing for the plaintiffs involved."