A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting female patients, in a criminal trial that came after the university system was created. About $700 million in litigation payouts connected with the case.
Dr James Heaps, 66, is in custody from one A jury convicted him in October three counts of sexual battery by deception and two counts of sexual penetration of two patients.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said after sentencing Hipps, Judge Michael D. Carter ordered him to register as a sex offender.
Heaps, a longtime UCLA campus gynecologist, pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts of sexually assaulting seven women between 2009 and 2018. The jury found him not guilty on seven of the 21 counts and was deadlocked on the remaining charges.
There were heaps Accused in multiple cases in 2021 Each sexual battery by deception, sexual exploitation of a patient and sexual penetration of an unconscious person by fraudulent representation.
Al Seeb / Los Angeles Times via AP
In the scandal that erupted in 2019 after the doctor’s arrest, UCLA agreed to pay nearly $700 million to settle lawsuits by hundreds of herpes patients — a record amount for a public university amid a wave of sexual misconduct scandals by campus doctors. Recent years.
UCLA patients said Heaps pushed them, made suggestive comments or conducted unnecessarily invasive tests during his 35-year career. The women who brought the lawsuits said the university ignored their complaints and intentionally covered up decades of abuse that occurred during testing at the UCLA Student Health Center, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center or Hips campus offices.
At one point, he was the highest paid physician in the UC system and treated nearly 6,000 patients. CBS Los Angeles reports.
More than 500 lawsuits were filed against Hepps and UCLA, alleging the school failed to protect patients after becoming aware of the misconduct, the station said.
Heaps continued to practice until his retirement in June 2018.
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