Ex-UCLA gynecologist sentenced to 11 years in sex abuse case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing female patients over the course of a 35-year career. Dr. James Heaps has been in custody since a jury convicted him in October of three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of two patients. The 66-year-old was sentenced Tuesday. He had pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing. In the wake of the scandal that erupted in 2019 following the doctor’s arrest, UCLA agreed to pay nearly $700 million in lawsuit settlements to hundreds of Heaps’ patients.