James Heaps, a former OB-GYN at the University of California Los Angeles, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted in October 2022 of sexual abuse of patients, the Los Angeles Daily News reported April 26.
Dr. Heaps was found guilty on five counts of sexual assault. According to court documents, he worked as a physician at UCLA between 1983 and 2018, though the charges were related to assaults that took place between 2009 and the end of his tenure.
"The trauma Dr. Heaps inflicted on the very people he had sworn to care for is immeasurable," Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said in an October 2022 statement after Dr. Heaps' conviction.
In May 2022, UCLA settled with 312 victims alleging abuse by Dr. Heaps for $374.4 million, after several also criticized the university for not adequately warning the public about allegations against him.