This post was updated Feb. 3 at 10:55 p.m.

A state appeals court reversed a ruling Monday against a former UCLA gynecologist who was sentenced to prison for felony sexual battery and penetration, sending the case back to court.

James Heaps – a UCLA gynecologist and a faculty member in the David Geffen School of Medicine from 1989 to 2018 – was convicted on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual exploitation of an unconscious victim in 2022. He was originally sentenced to 11 years in state prison in 2023 but will now face a retrial.

[Related: Former UCLA Health gynecologist James Heaps sentenced to 11 years in prison]

The university agreed to pay nearly $700 million in settlements to Heaps’ patients after he faced more than 500 sexual misconduct lawsuits. 

The appeals court cited a note from the foreperson – the juror tasked with with overseeing deliberations – which said one juror experienced a significant language barrier and was unable to deliberate as reasoning for the retrial.

“His (the juror’s) mind is already made up,” the foreperson wrote in the note.

The justices also noted in the final judgement decision that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Carter sent a judicial assistant to speak with the jury twice, but the conversations were not written down and Heaps’ lawyers were not told about the foreperson’s note to the judge. 

Carter filed a declaration on Sept. 13, 2024, that said the juror experiencing the language barrier was capable of continuing deliberations. The foreperson also filed a declaration on the same day confirming that the judicial assistant told the jury that the juror was willing to deliberate and that he sought to withdraw the note. 

Both statements were not filed under oath.

Heaps’ lawyers also argued that Heaps was denied his sixth amendment right to counsel at a critical stage of the trial. The jury convicted Heaps on three counts of sexual battery and two counts of sexual penetration Oct. 20, 2022, one day after their last conversation with the judicial assistant about the foreperson’s note. 

A UCLA Health spokesperson did not respond in time to a request for comment on the retrial. 

“We agree with the parties that defendant was denied his right to counsel when the trial judge failed to inform counsel of the Note,” acting Presiding Justice Helen I. Bendix wrote in the final judgment decision. “We also conclude respondent has failed to demonstrate that that this constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”