Two more lawsuits were filed Tuesday by women alleging former UCLA oncologist/gynecologist James Heaps repeatedly sexual assaulted them under the guise of performing legitimate medical treatments.
One of the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuits was brought on behalf of three women who were UCLA students at the time of the alleged assaults and the other on behalf of six women who were non-student patients at UCLA Medical Center.
During visits spanning the years 1989 to 2017, the women allege that Heaps abused them by groping and fondling their breasts and inappropriately touching their private parts while ostensibly conducting examinations.
In a one-sentence statement in response to a similar lawsuit previously filed against Heaps, UCLA Health called the allegations “very disturbing.”
The 62-year-old physician is facing criminal charges of sexually battering two unnamed patients in 2017 and 2018 at UCLA Health. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual battery by fraud and one count of sexual exploitation of a patient.
The University of California Board of Regents paid $2.25 million to a woman who alleged that Heaps sexually assaulted her while he was practicing at UCLA and another $1.3 million to a UCLA nurse-practitioner who alleged sexual harassment and retaliation for her participation in UCLA internal investigations of Heaps’ misconduct.
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