Former U.C.L.A. Doctor Is Sentenced to 11 Years in Sexual Abuse Case
An obstetrician-gynecologist who worked for decades at the University of California, Los Angeles, was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing patients, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Dr. James Heaps, 66, appeared in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County on Wednesday after jurors found him guilty in October 2022 of three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person.
Dr. Heaps, who was affiliated with the university in various roles from 1983 to 2018, did not make a statement on Wednesday after he was sentenced by Judge Michael D. Carter, according to local media organizations. His lawyer, Leonard Levine, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that prosecutors had asked 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 said.
Source: The New York Times
