An appeals court in California has overturned the sexual abuse conviction of a former gynecologist from the University of California, Los Angeles, citing that he was not granted a fair trial.
The decision was made by a three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal, which determined on Monday that James Heaps, who had been sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2023, was deprived of a fair trial. This conclusion was reached because the trial judge failed to disclose a note from the jury foreman, expressing concerns regarding a juror’s insufficient English proficiency to effectively perform their duties.
Leonard Levine, Heaps’ attorney, expressed relief over the court’s decision, telling The Associated Press, “Justice is slow, but it’s finally been done. I believe it’s just a matter of time before he is totally exonerated.”
Levine further explained that neither he nor his legal team were aware of the foreman’s note or any doubts about the juror’s qualifications until two years after the trial when it was found in a court file by an attorney working on an appeal.
James Heaps is shown in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 26, 2019. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP)
Levine added that if the note had not been discovered, the matter would have remained hidden, leading to a grave miscarriage of justice. He expressed gratitude that the issue has now been addressed and corrected.
Heaps, 69, 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.
UCLA patients said Heaps groped them, made suggestive comments or conducted unnecessarily invasive exams, the AP reported in 2023 at the time of his sentencing. Women who brought the lawsuits said the university ignored their complaints and deliberately concealed abuse that happened for decades during examinations at the UCLA student health center, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center or in Heaps’ campus office.
James Heaps, center, appears in Los Angeles Superior Court where he was taken into custody after additional charges were filed against him on Aug. 3, 2020. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Heaps continued to practice until his retirement in June 2018.
Heaps later 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.
In the 31-page ruling issued Monday, the panel of justices pointed out that within about one hour of Juror No. 15 being seated as a substitute for a juror who had a medical issue, concerns were raised about whether the person was qualified to serve. The foreman’s note indicated that Juror No. 15 did not speak English well enough to participate in the deliberations, the ruling stated.
Prosecutors have 30 days to appeal the ruling.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that, “Our office plans to retry the defendant as soon as possible.”
The panel stated that the problem was too grave to not order a retrial.
Attorney John Manly, who is joined by survivors and fellow attorneys representing more than 150 survivors of former UCLA gynecologist James Heaps in lawsuits against UCLA, announced a $243-million settlement during a press conference in Irvine, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. (Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
“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 ruling stated. “The importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures in a criminal trial gives us no other choice.”
