Twenty sexual assault charges now hunt a former UCLA gynecologist. Los Angeles prosecutors expanded their case against him as 17 more charges came on Monday from the initial three filed last year.

The gynecologist, Dr. James Heaps, 67, faces sexual assault charges filed by seven former patients.

Initially, two of the gynecologist's patients came forward with sexual assault charges. Then, five more former charged.

Heaps has been taken into custody, and his bond was set at $650,000, NBC Los Angeles noted.

Prosecutors alleged that the gynecologist assaulted the women during medical exams over seven years, from 2011 to 2018, reported Los Angeles Times.

More Details on the Case

As per the complaint, there are various felonies done by Heaps: sexual battery by fraud, sexual exploitation of a patient, and sexual penetration of an unconscious person.

This makes a total of ten battery cases by fraud, three charges of exploitation of patients, and seven counts of penetration of an unconscious person.

Heaps pleaded not guilty, and is scheduled to come back to court on September 15.

If the court convicts Heaps as charged, he can be put in state prison for 67 years or more, said the district attorney's office.

Heaps' lawyer, Leonard Levine, said his client has former patients who can come forward to prove the claims false.

Levine believes that, after the case gets into court, evidence will show that his client is innocent.

Under the Guise of Medical Treatment

Since Heaps was arrested, more former patients have filed lawsuits against him, saying the doctor did various forms of sexual abuse on them. According to them, Heaps would abuse them under the guise of doing a valid medical treatment.

The UCLA student paper Daily Bruin said Heaps was a UCLA ob-gyn from February 2014 to June 2018, but he was affiliated with the university from 1983 to 2018. He also worked part-time at the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center.

There have been victims from UCLA and outside.

Two lawsuits were filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court last July. The first suit on behalf of three women who were UCLA students, and the other was on behalf of six non-student patients in the UCLA Medical Center.

The women claim their abuse took place in the years 1989 to 2017.

A then 44-year-old cancer patient filed one lawsuit against Heaps and the UCLA Board of Regents.

She alleged that in four visits ending in 2017, Heaps did inappropriate touching of her private parts under the guise of a medical exam.

The suit also alleged one nurse from UCLA did nothing while in the room with Heaps and the woman. According to the complaint, the nurse simply walked to a computer, and sat with her back turned to the doctor.

The cancer patient's lawyer said sexual abuse in itself is "horrific," but taking advantage of a cancer patient who places her life in the hands of healthcare workers is "ghoulish."

In 2018, Heaps was allowed to "quietly resign" after an internal probe found that he did not abide by the Regents' sexual misconduct policy. UCLA did not disclose the prior abuses and investigation until a year later when he was charged.

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