los angeles — A California appeals court on Monday overturned a sexual assault conviction against a former UCLA student. gynecologist He ordered a retrial of the case.
A three-judge panel of the California 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that Dr. James Hibbs was denied a fair trial because the judge did not share with his defense attorney a memo written by a court foreman citing concerns that one of the jurors lacked sufficient English to carry out their duties.
Hibbs’ attorney, Leonard Levin, said he and his team were not aware of the memo or that there was any doubt about the juror’s ability to serve until two years later when an appellate attorney discovered it in the court file.
If the attorney had not seen it, Levin said, “it would have remained a secret, which is very unfortunate because it would have been a miscarriage of justice, but fortunately it was corrected.”
Hibbs was sentenced in 2023 to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting female patients.
“Justice is slow, but it has finally been achieved,” he said, adding, “I think it is only a matter of time before he is completely exonerated.”
Hibbs was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of patients during his 35-year career, and UCLA received nearly $700 million in payouts from lawsuits related to the allegations, a record amount at the time for a public university.
He has pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts of sexual assaults on seven women between 2009 and 2018. He was convicted in October 2022 of three counts of sexual assault by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of two patients. The jury found him not guilty on seven of the 21 counts and deadlocked on the remaining counts.
In the 31-page ruling, the appeals court panel noted that within approximately one hour of Juror No. 15 being seated as a substitute for the juror who had a medical condition, concerns were raised about whether the person was qualified to serve. The foreman’s memo indicated that Juror No. 15 did not speak English well enough to participate in deliberations, the ruling said.
Prosecutors have 30 days to appeal the ruling. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in an email to The Associated Press that it plans to retry Heaps as soon as possible.
The committee stated that the problem was too serious to order a retrial.
“We recognize the burden placed on the court, and unfortunately, on the witnesses, in requesting a retrial in a case involving multiple victims and engaging in intimate medical examinations,” the ruling said. “The importance of the constitutional right to counsel at critical stages of a criminal trial gives us no other choice.”