A former obstetrician-gynecologist affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles must be retried on sexual abuse charges after a state appeals court ruled that a key procedural error denied him a fair trial.
The ruling, issued Monday by a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal, overturns the 2022 conviction of James M. Heaps, who was sentenced in April 2023 to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of multiple felony counts, including sexual battery by fraud and sexual penetration of an unconscious person.
The appellate court found that the trial judge failed to disclose a note sent by the jury during deliberations — a note raising concerns about a juror’s ability to understand English. Under California law, jurors must possess sufficient English proficiency to serve. The court concluded that withholding the note from both prosecutors and defense counsel violated Heaps’s constitutional right to counsel at a critical stage of the proceedings, requiring reversal of the conviction.
The undisclosed “Note to Judge,” sent in October 2022, stated that a recently seated alternate juror had told fellow jurors that his “limited English interfered with his understanding of the testimony,” and that “his mind is already made up,” regardless of the evidence presented.
“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 appeals court wrote. “The importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures in a criminal trial gives us no other choice.”
Heaps, now 69, was affiliated with UCLA in various medical roles from 1983 to 2018. The university has already paid approximately $700 million to settle hundreds of civil claims brought by former patients who alleged sexual misconduct during examinations — one of the largest settlements of its kind involving a public university.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said it plans to retry Heaps “as soon as possible.” He will be transferred from state prison back to county custody, and a judge may consider releasing him on bail while the case proceeds.
The ruling has had an immediate emotional impact on survivors. Courtney M. Thom, an attorney who represented more than 200 former patients in a $243 million settlement with UCLA, said many of the women were “completely devastated” by the news.
“Right now, the shock is hitting them very, very hard,” Thom said. “No one saw this coming.”
Thom, a former sex-crimes prosecutor, described the failure to disclose the jury note as a serious departure from standard judicial practice. “Judges routinely share even mundane jury notes with counsel,” she said. “A note raising concerns about a juror’s ability to understand the proceedings is a major red flag.”
Defense attorneys for Heaps said the note was discovered more than a year after sentencing while reviewing the appellate record. Leonard Levine, who represented Heaps at trial, said he had never encountered a situation in which a jury note was withheld from both sides.
“I have never heard before, in my 50 years of practice, of a juror note not being provided to the attorneys, as well as the court,” Levine said. He expressed confidence that Heaps, who has denied wrongdoing, would be acquitted in a retrial.
Heaps was initially charged in 2019 and later indicted on 21 counts related to alleged misconduct between 2009 and 2018. The 2022 verdict was mixed: jurors acquitted him on seven counts and deadlocked on nine others.
In an unsworn declaration quoted by the appeals court, the trial judge, Michael D. Carter, said he was overseeing a “teen court” program at a local high school when the jury note arrived. He instructed his judicial assistant to ask whether jurors could continue deliberating. After speaking with the jury foreperson and the juror in question, the assistant reported that all jurors said they could proceed. The parties were never notified, and no formal inquiry was conducted.
Appellate counsel for Heaps argued that the failure to disclose the note deprived defense counsel of the opportunity to seek removal of the juror or request other remedies.
“Under these circumstances,” said appellate attorney Alan Yockelson, “the appellate court rightfully concluded that the denial of the right to counsel at such a critical point in the trial was prejudicial and that the convictions had to be reversed.”
The retrial will once again place scrutiny on both the criminal justice process and the institutional failures that allowed Heaps to maintain access to patients for years despite mounting complaints — a reckoning that survivors say remains unfinished.
Manly, Stewart & Finaldi is the nation’s leading firm representing victims of sexual abuse by government agencies, physicians, universities, school districts, churches, and sports organizations. They are the lead attorneys representing victims of former Olympic Team doctor Larry Nassar and secured $880 million in settlements. They were the lead attorneys representing victims of former USC gynecologist George Tyndall, resulting in a historic $852 million settlement. They represented victims in the $660 million settlement with the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 2007 and more than $700 million in settlements against Catholic entities throughout the United States. They were the lead attorneys in a $140 million settlement with the LA Unified School District in the Miramonte cases. The firm has successfully recovered more than 3 billion dollars for its clients through jury verdicts and settlements.
