A California appeals court on Monday threw out the sex abuse conviction of former UCLA gynecologist James Heaps and sent the case back for retrial, after finding that the defense did not receive key information about a juror’s ability to serve. The three-judge panel of the California 2nd District Court of Appeal said the trial court’s handling of a foreman’s note interfered with Heaps’ fair-trial rights.
The appeals court said the issue began when Juror No. 15 was seated as a substitute juror, about an hour after the juror who had a medical issue left the panel. According to the ruling, concerns were raised during that period about whether the substitute juror was qualified to serve, and the foreman’s note indicated that Juror No. 15 did not speak English well enough to participate in deliberations. The panel faulted the trial judge for not sharing that note with Heaps’ defense attorneys.
Heaps’ attorney, Leonard Levine, said he and his team were not aware of the note or any question about the juror’s ability to serve until years later. Levine told The Associated Press that it was only about two years later, when an attorney working on an appeal discovered the note inside a court file, that the defense learned about the foreman’s concerns.
The appeals court concluded that the constitutional right to counsel at critical junctures required a new trial, the ruling said. The panel acknowledged the “burden on the trial court” and the “burden…on the witnesses” that comes with retrial in a case involving multiple victims and detailed testimony about intimate medical examinations, but it said there was “no other choice.”
Heaps had been sentenced in 2023 to 11 years in prison after he was convicted on counts tied to allegations that he sexually abused female patients. The prosecution’s case involved 21 felony counts involving the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. The jury found him not guilty of seven of the 21 counts and deadlocked on the remaining charges; after that outcome, he was convicted on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration.
In Monday’s ruling, the appeals panel said the problem was too grave to leave the conviction in place without ordering a retrial. “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 ruling stated, adding that the right to counsel meant the court had “no other choice.”
After the appellate decision, prosecutors told The Associated Press they planned to appeal the ruling within 30 days and to retry Heaps as soon as possible. In response to the reversal, Heaps said “Justice is slow but it’s finally been done,” according to the reporting, and he added: “I believe it’s just a matter of time before he is totally exonerated.”