An obstetrician-gynecologist who labored for many years on the University of California, Los Angeles, was sentenced to 11 years in jail after being convicted of sexually abusing sufferers, his lawyer stated on Thursday.
Dr. James Heaps, 66, appeared within the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County on Wednesday after jurors discovered him responsible in October 2022 of three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious particular person.
Dr. Heaps, who was affiliated with the college in varied roles from 1983 to 2018, didn’t make an announcement on Wednesday after he was sentenced by Judge Michael D. Carter, in accordance with native media organizations. His lawyer, Leonard Levine, stated in a phone interview on Thursday that prosecutors had requested for a 13-year sentence.
Dr. Heaps “would be remorseful for anything that he did that was inappropriate. But he adamantly denies any of these criminal offenses,” Mr. Levine stated.
Mr. Levine stated they might attraction and that Dr. Heaps, who has been in custody since his conviction, would have a listening to in May and search to be launched on bail or his personal recognizance, pending the result of the attraction.
In court docket, prosecutors learn statements from a few of the victims, who stated they’ve suffered from excessive nervousness and not trusted male medical doctors due to the sexual abuse.
“I’m still living with a lot of anxiety. I’ve gone to some very dark places in my thoughts,” Jane T., one of many victims, wrote in an announcement learn by a prosecutor in court docket earlier than the sentencing, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office couldn’t be reached for remark early Thursday.
Dr. Heaps was initially charged in 2019 and was indicted in 2021 on 21 counts of sexual misconduct involving seven ladies from 2009 to 2018. In October, jurors acquitted him of seven counts and couldn’t attain a unanimous choice on 9 counts, the district legal professional’s workplace stated on the time.
Mr. Levine stated that Wednesday’s sentence pertained to a cost of sexual battery by fraud involving one girl in 2017, and the opposite 4 fees concerned a second girl, between 2013 and 2015.
Dr. Heaps had labored half time on the college’s pupil well being middle from about 1983 to 2010. He was employed by U.C.L.A. Health, a well being care system linked to the college, in 2014 and held medical workers privileges on the Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center from 1988 to 2018, when he was faraway from scientific apply in response to allegations of sexual misconduct and had his employment terminated.
In May 2020, a U.C.L.A. particular committee launched a report saying it had reviewed accusations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Heaps throughout exams, together with that he had used a painful vaginal examination approach, inappropriately touched ladies, unnecessarily touched a affected person’s genital piercing and groped sufferers’ breasts throughout breast exams.
The case has value U.C.L.A. about $700 million to settle the claims of sexual misconduct. They embody $243 million in funds to settle the claims of 203 ladies who alleged sexual misconduct and a $73 million settlement made public in 2020 to resolve a class-action swimsuit that concerned greater than 5,000 of Dr. Heaps’s sufferers for the reason that Nineteen Eighties.
The civil settlements had been separate from the prison case.
Source: www.nytimes.com