WESTWOOD—On Tuesday, April 14, 2026, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office disclosed that James Heaps, 69, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and required to register as a sex offender for life after he pleaded guilty today to sexually assaulting five female patients from 2011-2018 while working as an obstetrician-gynecologist at UCLA.
Heaps pleaded at a pretrial hearing just two months after a California appeals court overturned his 2023 conviction due to an error by the trial judge.
Heaps, of Woodland Hills pleaded guilty on Tuesday in case SA100560 to 13 counts including: six felony counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person, five felony counts of sexual battery by fraud, and two felony counts of sexual exploitation of a patient. Heaps was sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo.
In 2023, Heaps was convicted by a jury of three felony counts of sexual battery by fraud and two felony counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person. He was sentenced in 2023 to 11 years in prison.
Heaps, a longtime gynecologist and faculty member at the university, sexually assaulted the victims over the years he practiced on campus. The case was prosecuted by Head Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers and Deputy District Attorney Rosa Zavala and was investigated by the California Department of Consumer Affairs.
By Danny Jones