Court denies writ to overturn former UCLA OB-GYN James Heaps’ indictment
A writ to overturn a grand jury indictment of former UCLA OB-GYN James Heaps on multiple felony counts of sexual assault was denied by an appeals court on March 18. (Courtesy of Al Seib/LA Times)
By Justin Jung
April 6, 2022 12:12 a.m.
This post was updated April 6 at 10:05 p.m.
An appeals court denied a writ to overturn former UCLA OB-GYN James Heaps’ sexual assault indictment on March 18.
Heaps, a former David Geffen School of Medicine faculty member and UCLA Health OB-GYN, was indicted by a grand jury in May on 21 counts of felony sexual assault and is accused by hundreds of plaintiffs in civil cases.
The writ of prohibition in the California 2nd District Court of Appeal was denied on March 18. It was the second time Heaps sought to have the grand jury indictment overturned. According to Cornell Law School, a writ of prohibition is a written order from an appellate court stopping a lower court from taking action because of its limited jurisdiction.
Heaps filed the writ in a second attempt to overturn the indictment on August 30, after the Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed his motion to overturn the indictment on August 13.
Heaps will next appear in court Friday for a pretrial conference at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
