Prosecutors announced Monday that they intend to retry former UCLA campus gynecologist James Heaps on nine sexual assault counts that a previous jury was unable to reach a verdict on.
Heaps was convicted in April on five sex-related counts and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was acquitted of seven more counts. The decision on the remaining nine counts resulted in a hung jury.
Heaps’ defense attorney Tracy Green told the judge they would ask that the remaining counts be dismissed.
“[The jurors] were solidly hung, 9-3. That’s three people in terms of acquittal,” she said. “And it’s hard to imagine that the case will get better for the prosecution.”
But Deputy DA Danette Meyers said the division among the jurors was actually a factor in favor of their decision to retry Heaps.
“I think that the chief deputy took into consideration, the counts hung in favor of guilt,” she said. “And the equitable thing to do when a case hangs in this manner, which is normally what we do, is we retry them.
The final decision on a retrial will be made by the judge, with a hearing scheduled for late October.
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