Heaps

BACKGROUND

We summarize below only those facts relevant to the dispositive issue on appeal.

1. The charges and jury findings Defendant James Mason Heaps worked as a gynecological oncologist at the University of California Los Angeles. His trial involved the claims of seven former patients for one or more of the following crimes during his medical examinations: sexual battery by fraud,1 sexual exploitation,2 and sexual penetration of

Penal Code section 243.4, subdivision (c) provides: “Any person who touches an intimate part of another person for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, and the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose, is guilty of sexual battery. A violation of this subdivision is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, and by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000); or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, and by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000).” 2 Business and Professions Code section 729, subdivision (a) provides: “Any…