Ex-Fugees rapper Pras guilty in Chinese influence case

• April 26, 2023

By Holmes Lybrand | CNN

The rapper Pras Michel was found guilty in federal court in Washington on Wednesday of 10 criminal counts related to an international conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the US government.

The Grammy-winning artist and former member of the Fugees faced multiple counts over the failed conspiracy to help Malaysian businessman Jho Low and the Chinese government gain access to US officials, including former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Michel testified last week that Low paid Michel $20 million in 2012 in order to get a picture of himself with Obama and prosecutors alleged Michel funneled over $800,000 of that money to Obama’s campaign through a number of straw donors.

In his defense, Michel testified he never used the money at Low’s direction but instead saw it as his money which he could spend however he wanted.

“I could have bought 12 elephants with it,” he told the jury.

When Trump came to power in 2017 and investigations started to ramp up into Low and his alleged role in billions of dollars being embezzled from 1MBD, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Low went to Michel again, prosecutors alleged.

According to the prosecutors, Low directed over $100 million to Michel to help push the government, including Trump, to drop its investigation into Low. Prosecutors also say Michel advocated for the extradition of a Chinese dissident, Guo Wengui, on behalf of the Chinese government.

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Michel, however, testified he only tried to help Low find an attorney in the US and only told authorities about Guo because he thought he was a criminal. The former Fugees member also said the $100 million was for a media business he was starting and the investment wasn’t from Low.

Low, who was charged along with Michel, is believed to be in China. Guo has since been arrested and charged by the Justice Department with defrauding investors in an unrelated case.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

​ Orange County Register 

Colorado’s big snowpack powers massive ‘pulse’ of water being shot through Grand Canyon

• April 26, 2023

A huge amount of the water that flows down from Colorado’s snowy mountains into the West’s depleted Lake Powell reservoir is rocketing out of pipes this week to power a massive, simulated flood through the Grand Canyon — the first one in five years to try to revitalize canyon ecosystems the way nature once did.

Federal operators of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon opened jets to begin this surge before sunrise Monday, sending what they described as “a pulse” of water whooshing through the Colorado River as it curves through the base of the canyon.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said they’ll maintain the surge until Thursday evening, ensuring a flow for 72 hours at 39,500 cubic feet per second of water.

This “High Flow Experiment” will require 270,000 acre-feet of water, federal officials said — enough to sustain more than half a million households for a year. By comparison, Denver Water typically captures 290,000 acre-feet of water, or more than 94 billion gallons, from rain and snow in Colorado over an entire year for city supplies.

The water gushing out of dam jets this week normally would have flowed gradually over the month of April out of Lake Powell into the river. Eventually, the water will end up in Lake Mead, the key supply for Arizona, California and Nevada.

Federal officials based their recent decision to allow the simulated floods on the relatively heavy high mountain snowpack this year along headwaters of the Colorado River, which begins west of Denver near Grand Lake.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest snow survey data this week showed snowpack in the upper Colorado River Basin at 129% of the 1991-2020 norm. Federal hydrologists have estimated 14.7 million acre-feet of water this summer will flow from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah into Lake Powell.

Since 2018, federal dam operators have declined to release water for simulated flood surges due to long-term drought and anxieties around record-low reservoir water levels, linked by scientists to climate warming and aridification of the Southwest — transformations that have left Lake Powell and Lake Mead less than a quarter full. Yet the nation’s 1992 Grand Canyon Protection Act requires efforts to ensure ecological health in the canyon, and officials established a program that includes simulated floods.

Federal officials this week declined to comment as water surged.

Dry times across the Southwest, and higher temperatures that over the past two decades reduced overall annual water in the Colorado River, have forced federal dam operators to prioritize keeping as much as possible in Lake Powell. Simulated floods for ecological purposes in the Grand Canyon became a casualty.

Last week, the environmental advocacy group American Rivers declared the Colorado River the nation’s most “endangered” river due to a lack of flooding. This week, American Rivers leaders applauded the surge as “a critical step” toward reviving the Grand Canyon.

A dead fish is seen near the shore in the low water levels on April 12, 2023, at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

“The damage to the ecosystems in the Grand Canyon has been substantial” over the past five years, American Rivers spokesman Sinjin Eberle said, describing harm caused by dams, which block sand and other sediments essential for aquatic life and canyon habitat.

Clear, colder-than-natural water released from the dam atop the canyon year after year “is eroding sand off beaches every day. Aquatic life and vegetation depend on those beaches. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of rocks and tamarisk,” Eberle said, referring to invasive shrubs that thrive and out-compete native species when dams lead to regularized water flows.

In Colorado, water policy officials declined to take a position on the simulated flood. But they acknowledged the environmental benefits in the canyon.

“The intent of this release is to pick up existing sediment in the canyon and deposit it downstream,” said Michelle Garrison, the state’s representative in a federal stakeholders advisory group that is part of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program.

Denver Water “is supportive of the environmental flow program” in the Grand Canyon, utility manager Jim Lochhead said, lauding the effort by multiple agencies that “come together to shift water releases — not increase overall releases — in order to mimic spring hydrology through the basin, which helps to improve beaches, sandbars and aquatic habitats.”

The Glen Canyon Dam holds back Colorado River water, which forms Lake Powell, seen from the air on April 15, 2023, in Page, Arizona. The flight for aerial photography was provided by LightHawk.(Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

In 1963, the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon disrupted essential natural processes and created Lake Powell. Sand and other sediments that for centuries moved downriver, scouring surfaces and creating beaches, suddenly were backed up on the reservoir side of that dam. And the regularized, steady flows of clear water, devoid of sediment, gradually are transforming the canyon.

During the simulated spring flood, U.S. Geological Survey scientists are monitoring the effects on fish populations and aquatic insects.

At the Grand Canyon Trust, officials devoted to protecting the river and canyon called on federal authorities to find a way to conduct future simulated floods — even during dry times.

“We long have prioritized hydropower. We long have prioritized water users. The environment is always the last priority,” the trust’s water advocacy director Jen Pelz said. “We need to figure out how to balance competing interests in a way that honors the environment.”

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.

​ Orange County Register 

E. Jean Carroll testifies: ‘Donald Trump raped me’

• April 26, 2023

By Lauren del Valle | CNN

Former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll took the stand Wednesday morning in her battery and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll testified. “He lied and shattered my reputation and I’m here to try to get my life back.”

Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation, alleging that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her years later when she went public with the allegations. Trump has repeatedly denied her allegations.

On the stand, Carroll recalled being “delighted” to be shopping with Trump, thinking it’d be a great story to tell friends.

“Well, it was such a funny New York scene,” Carroll said she thought at the time. “I love to give advice and here was Donald Trump asking me for advice about buying a present.”

She was not at all fearful of Trump, who was friendly and very funny. “I was absolutely enchanted, I could only think of it as a scene that is such a great story,” Carroll said.

The tone of their conversation was “very joshing and light” as they moved through the store.

Carroll was too focused on Trump to notice anyone else once they took the escalator from the first floor, she testified.

“I wasn’t looking, I was watching him and watching that I didn’t fall when the escalator hit the top.”

Carroll recalled she was probably flirting with Trump the whole time before the alleged assault, not thinking it was intimate or serious.

When the two made their way to the lingerie department, Carroll said the “comedy was escalating” but it never occurred to her that Trump might try to rape her.

Zeroing in on a sheer gray bodysuit, Trump told Carroll to try it on, she said. She jokingly told him he should try it on instead.

Carroll had no intention to try on the lingerie, she testified Wednesday, but followed Trump’s gesture into the dressing room thinking the moment could be a funny “Saturday Night Live” sketch.

“I didn’t picture anything about what was about to happen,” she said Wednesday. “That open door has plagued me for years because I just walked into it, walked in.”

Carroll recounted how Trump allegedly shoved her against the wall despite her struggles and eventually inserted his fingers and then his penis inside her.

She recalled the pain she felt in the back of her head and her vagina.

Growing emotional on the stand, Carroll took a long pause as her attorney asked what she did after Trump allegedly forced himself inside her.

“When you ask me what I did in that moment,” Carroll said, stuttering through tears, “I always think — I always think of why I walked in there to get myself in that situation. But I’m proud to say I did get out, I got my knee up and pushed him back.”

Testimony from former store manager

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Before Carroll took the stand, former Bergdorf Goodman Women’s Store Manager Cheryl Beall testified for under an hour as Carroll’s first witness in the civil trial.

Beall worked at the luxury department store for a decade until about 1998, and had an office on the sixth floor adjacent to the lingerie department where Carroll has alleged Trump raped her.

She walked the jury through a floor plan of the sixth floor from the relevant time period, describing the layout and fitting rooms on that floor as a wooden-walled room with walls that met the ceiling. The fitting room door locked automatically when closed, she testified.

Beall said the store had a practice of keeping fitting room doors closed while not in use, but they’d “regularly” be left open.

Bergdorf Goodman scheduled at least one person to monitor each department at all times but it was not uncommon that the area on the sixth floor would be left unmanned, especially on a slow evening, Beall said.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

​ Orange County Register 

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified trustees OK creepy plan to censor books

• April 26, 2023

It’s ironic that a novel about the Iranian revolution initially drew the ire of conservative school-board members at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. That debate – and concern about some language used by the author – sparked the district’s passage of a new plan that makes the elected trustees the final arbiter of books that the district uses in its curriculum.

The board ultimately approved the use of “Persepolis: The Story of Childhood,” which documents the oppressive tactics of the Islamic Republic. Unlike in Iran, the United States champions the widest freedom of speech and thought – and Americans generally frown upon elected officials who try to set themselves as “culture ministers” who vet reading material.

By a 3-2 vote, the board gave initial approval to a policy that requires a full board vote before the district pilots a new book. The ringleader, Trustee Todd Frazier, argues it’s not actually a book ban. He’s technically correct. Yes, someone has to make these choices. But schools typically set up a process, such as the district’s Literature Review Committee, to vet teachers’ proposals.

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This approach turns every mundane choice into a hot-button political issue. It will dumb down students’ reading material by assuring that educators propose only the least-controversial books – lest it set off controversy at a board meeting. The policy encourages ideologically driven board members to grandstand. Trustees have more pressing issues (e.g., finances, hiring practices, etc.) to handle.

“I have been made keenly aware that our education system has become more focused on divisive ideologies that threaten traditional American values rather than promote academic excellence,” Frazier argued during his campaign. Instead of focusing on academic excellence, the board majority seems intent on promoting its own divisive ideologies.

We have long supported the idea that parents should have a greater say in their children’s education, which is why we advocate for charter schools and other alternatives to monopoly public schools. But the answer isn’t to micromanage book choices or preen for conservative media, but to delve into the hard work of building a competitive school system.

​ Orange County Register 

The unexpected consequences of tobacco bans: bonds, taxes, police, and more

• April 26, 2023

If California’s legislature intends to create a smoke-free generation, they’ll need to adopt a new approach.

In pursuit of this noble goal, the California legislature is currently pondering Assembly Bill 935, a bill that would prohibit any individual born after 2006 from purchasing tobacco products. From the outset, the logic of the bill doesn’t track. Prohibitions on substances have proven time and again to be futile. Far from reducing the behavior they’re aimed at curbing, they simply push consumers to make riskier choices to get what they ultimately want — and this ban would be no different. But there are even more subterranean downsides to these bans. If California moves ahead with this legislation, the entire state budget will be at risk.

If the state government is truly committed to deterring smoking, they should focus on proven harm reduction policies instead of ineffective and counterproductive bans.

Proponents of tobacco prohibitions have argued that forbidding individuals from purchasing and consuming tobacco products would reduce federal and state health care costs as the incidence of tobacco-related illnesses, like cardiovascular disease and cancer, would decrease with smoking rates. It has been estimated that yearly tobacco-related health care costs in the Golden State total more than $15 billion, with almost $4 billion of those expenses sourced from Medicaid. If a ban were successfully implemented and followed religiously, it could help mitigate these expenditures and might save taxpayers big money — or so the argument goes.

In reality, however, the ban won’t work. People will keep smoking, they’ll just buy unregulated, untaxed cigarettes from a black market that’s sure to spring up, or they’ll drive to neighboring states to buy their smokes legally. Sure, the ban might deter some and cause smoking related illnesses to dip, but it seems unlikely medical costs will decrease enough to offset the billions of dollars in tobacco excise taxes the state would be missing out on every year. Today, California’s excise tax rate on cigarettes is $2.87, the 16th highest in the nation and almost a dollar above the average U.S. tax rate of $1.91. If the state were to eventually prohibit tobacco products entirely, like this bill intends, California would be out an estimated $2 billion in tax revenue a year. Revenue from these taxes goes towards the tobacco tax fund which finances the Tobacco-Use Prevention Education Program and the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, among other state programs focused on harm reduction.

Not only would California lose out on this revenue, but citizens would also be incentivized to road trip for their smokes. We know from recent studies that consumers are more than willing to make these treks in order to legally purchase these substances, in turn increasing their risk of car-related injuries which could then contribute to health care costs.

The financial implications of the ban go even deeper than tax revenue. If this bill were to be passed, California puts itself at risk of defaulting on their tobacco bonds, like New Jersey nearly did back in 2014. If the state defaults on these bonds (one of which doesn’t reach its final maturity until 2066) due to decreasing tobacco revenue from the phase-out ban of the substance, investors will still be entitled to collect the money they are due. A default like this has the potential to negatively affect the state budget (and, possibly, taxpayers) through added debts.

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Even more worrisome, however, is the bill’s potential criminal justice implications. New York, for example, has a $4.35 excise tax rate on cigarettes which has resulted in individuals buying the products from neighboring states with lower tax rates and selling them on the street. In 2014, Eric Garner was killed by a New York City police officer while he was being arrested for illegally selling single cigarettes from packs without a tax stamp. While the proposed legislation does not detail the repercussions individuals could face if they were to be caught smuggling tobacco products into the state, California is inviting similar criminal justice issues by promoting total bans like those outlined in AB 935.

Harm reduction policies like the educational services and rehabilitation programs already available in California (and which are at risk of getting defunded if this bill passes) would mitigate these risks while helping to reduce the incidence of smoking in all generations. It would be incredibly unwise for the state of California to systematically diminish the tax revenue that funds their tobacco harm reduction programs. It is not the role of the government to forbid its citizens from choosing to smoke cigarettes — instead, they should focus on promoting healthier alternatives and educating the population on the long term health effects these products have on smokers and those surrounding them.

Sofia Hamilton is a Research Associate at a DC think tank and a Contributor with Young Voices where she focuses on issues related to health care, housing, and welfare. Her work has previously appeared in the Orange County Register, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and Real Clear Markets.

​ Orange County Register 

NFL draft: Which USC players might get picked and when

• April 26, 2023

With the NFL draft beginning Thursday, here’s a look at where USC prospects can expect to be selected over the weekend.

Jordan Addison

Position: Wide receiver

Year: Junior

Size: 5-foot-11, 173 pounds

Projections: Coming straight out of the season, Addison seemed like a lock not only to be a first-round pick but possibly as high as in the top 12. But as draft season progressed, there seemed to be less consensus on the valuation of receivers in this year’s draft, after a run on wideouts in Round 1 a year ago. Still, given his versatility and raw athleticism at his size, here’s guessing someone in the first round takes a gamble on Addison on Thursday night.

Mekhi Blackmon

Position: Cornerback

Year: Senior

Size: 5-foot-11, 178 pounds

Projections: Blackmon has done a lot of good work to improve his standing in the past year, from his breakout season at USC to running a 4.47-second 40-yard dash at the combine. But given how he’s used his physicality to make up for other athletic shortcomings, Blackmon is still likely a Day 3 guy, in Rounds 5-6.

Travis Dye

Position: Running back

Year: Senior

Size: 5-foot-10, 201 pounds

Projections: Dye is a tricky one to nail down, given the ankle fracture he suffered in November. He was still recovering from surgery at the NFL combine and did not get to run a 40-yard dash there, and the rainy conditions slowed down his time at USC’s pro day. This put a lot of weight on Dye’s private workouts with teams to show that he has regained his burst since the injury. Dye is likely a Day 3 selection, probably Rounds 6-7.

Brett Neilon

Position: Center

Year: Senior

Size: 6-foot-2, 295 pounds

Projections: Neilon entered the draft coming off a devastating leg injury suffered in early December. Unable to participate at the combine and pro day, Neilon will rely on game tape to get him a chance in the pros. He’s looking at either a Round 7 selection or undrafted free agency.

Tuli Tuipulotu

Position: Defensive end

Year: Junior

Size: 6-foot-3, 266 pounds

Projections: It’s tough to know exactly how an NFL team will use Tuipulotu, given his size doesn’t exactly match up with most NFL defensive linemen. But there’s enough film showing how much Tuipulotu’s strength and athleticism make up for any size limitations, and someone will take him in Round 2 or 3.

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Andrew Vorhees

Position: Offensive line

Year: Senior

Size: 6-foot-6, 310 pounds

Projections: Vorhees was looking like a late first-round, early second-round selection prior to tearing his ACL at the NFL combine. Still, his incredible bench press performance after the injury stole headlines, and there will be a team without an immediate need on the offensive line willing to stash Vorhees for a year and allow him to recover from surgery. But it’s more likely to come in Rounds 4-5 than 2-3 now.

​ Orange County Register 

Lilia Vu heads to Wilshire Country Club, this time as a major champion

• April 26, 2023

HOLLYWOOD — During her star-studded career at UCLA, Lilia Vu spent a lot of time practicing and playing at Wilshire Country Club, site of this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship. But this week is the first time that the Fountain Valley native has played Wilshire as a major champion.

At last week’s Chevron Championship, played at Carlton Woods in Texas, Vu rallied from four shots behind on the final day to get into a playoff with fellow California native Angel Yin. Vu won the title with a birdie putt on the first extra hole, earning Vu her first major championship and elevating back to the rarified air she experienced during her time at UCLA.

Vu was the 2016 Pac-12 Freshman Golfer of the Year and was No.1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 31 weeks in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, she was named the WGCA Player of the Year and Pac-12 Conference Golfer of the Year. But once Vu turned professional her fortunes changed, missing all but one cut in her first season on the LPGA Tour and struggling to play the way everyone expected.

She spent the next two seasons on the Epson Tour and in 2021 she posted 10 top 10 finishes, including four wins, earning her way back on to the LPGA Tour in 2022 and since returning, she has looked and played like the player who dominated college golf.

In her return to the LPGA last season, Vu posted eight, top-10 finishes, including a tie for third at the BMW Ladies Championship and a 10th place finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Armed with renewed confidence, she opened this season by claiming her first LPGA title at the Honda LPGA Thailand and two months later she won the Chevron.

“It’s starting to feel real now, but waking up on Monday, it didn’t feel real,” Vu said during a media conference on Tuesday at Wilshire. “I felt like I was dreaming because I had a pretty tough weekend and I didn’t really feel like I was in the tournament until basically 17 and 18 happened, and then I was back in it again. I just couldn’t believe it, to be honest.”

When Vu landed at LAX on Monday afternoon, she went directly to a family celebration at her dad’s friend’s Vietnamese restaurant called Thanh My restaurant in Westminster where the newly crowned champion enjoyed some comfort food.

“It was really nice to be home for not even a day because I drove up this morning, but yeah, it’s very comforting,” Vu said. “I love home, and I just love California. It’s nice that we’re playing here this week in LA, not too far from home, so family and friends are going to be coming out, so that will also help me.”

And Vu loves Wilshire Country Club, a course she feels extremely attached to after spending so much time there while at UCLA.

“It’s nostalgia, and there’s really no golf course quite like Wilshire,” Vu said. “I don’t think you can really compare it to anything in my opinion because they’re just so different from the typical surrounding LA courses around here. It’s not easy. Putting is going to be difficult. I think it’s going to be difficult for everybody. It’s just another target golf course. You want to drive it well off the tee and you want to keep it below the pin. I think it’s going to be pretty difficult and fun, though.”

This is the fifth straight year that Wilshire Country Club has hosted the LPGA but it is the first time as the LA Championship, a new event on the schedule. It features one of the strongest fields of the 2023 LPGA Tour season including the four past champions at Wilshire. Players will be competing for a $3 million tournament purse, one of the largest prize funds on the LPGA Tour outside of major championships.

Vu is one of 13 players in the field this week who played their college golf at either UCLA or USC. UCLA Alumni are Vu, Bronte Law, Alison Lee, Ryann O’Toole, Patty Tavatanakit, and Mariajo Uribe. USC Alumni include Jennifer Chang, Allisen Corpuz, Muni He, Annie Park, Lizette Salas, Jennifer Song, and Gabriella Then.

Corpuz was tied for the lead heading into the final round at the Chevron but stumbled a bit and finished fourth. Like Vu, she is thrilled to be back in her native Southern California and to be playing a course she knows so well.

“We practiced here my first two years at USC,” Corpuz said. “The course has changed a little bit but overall the design is the same. It’s a beautiful course. I really like how it’s set up. I think it suits my eye really well. There have been so many Trojans this week that come and say, ‘Hi, fight on!’ I am in my own bed, and I’m like 10 minutes from the course, so it makes the commute easy. I had fun last year out here, and I’m excited to have another fun week.”

The tournament starts on Thursday, with the final round scheduled for Sunday.

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​ Orange County Register 

No new trial for ex-UCLA gynecologist convicted on sex charges — and he’ll soon know his sentence

• April 26, 2023

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH

BURBANK — A judge Wednesday denied a request for a new trial for a former UCLA campus gynecologist who was convicted of sex-related charges involving two patients, clearing the way for his sentencing to proceed Wednesday afternoon.

Superior Court Judge Michael Carter heard arguments Wednesday morning from attorneys representing Dr. James Mason Heaps, asking that he be granted a new trial. They argued in part that Heaps received ineffective assistance from his trial attorney, most notably in the decision not to have Heaps testify in his own defense.

Carter ultimately rejected the motion. Heaps is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday afternoon.

Heaps, 66, has been behind bars since he was convicted last Oct. 20 by a downtown Los Angeles jury on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person. Those charges involved two patients, with jurors finding that those victims were particularly vulnerable and that Heaps had abused a position of trust.

The charges carry a potential sentence of up to 13 years in state prison.

Heaps was acquitted of three counts each of sexual penetration of an unconscious person and sexual battery by fraud, and one count of sexual exploitation of a patient — with those charges involving two other patients.

The judge declared a mistrial on the remaining nine counts — three counts of sexual battery by fraud, four counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person and two counts of sexual exploitation of a patient. It was still unclear if prosecutors plan to retry Heaps on those counts.

Heaps was indicted in May 2021 on charges involving the seven female patients.

At a hearing in February, the judge rejected a defense bid to release Heaps on bail while he was awaiting sentencing. The judge rejected the defense’s argument that Heaps does not present a flight risk and intended to show up for his sentencing at the Burbank courthouse, where Carter was transferred after the trial.

“He intends to be here,” one of his attorneys, Tracy Green, said then of Heaps. “… He isn’t going anywhere. … He’s not the type of person to run away from his problems.”

Ex-UCLA gynecologist Dr. James Heaps

Ex-UCLA gynecologist convicted of 5 sex-related charges, acquitted of 7 others
UCLA to pay record of nearly $700M in doctor abuse lawsuits
UC system to pay $243.6 million more for sexual-misconduct allegations tied to ex-UCLA gynecologist
5,500 women to divide $73 million from settlement in lawsuit against UCLA gynecologist
Former UCLA gynecologist arrested on 21 counts alleging sexual assaults of patients

The defense lawyer assured the judge then that Heaps intended to surrender his medical license — an action he subsequently took in March — and said her client would submit to home arrest and GPS monitoring. She also argued that Heaps suffers from various medical issues for which he cannot receive adequate treatment in jail.

Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers countered that Heaps’ conduct “was severe and it was substantial,” saying he had a great impetus to flee.

“If I was sitting in the defendant’s shoes, I wouldn’t come back,” Meyers said.

The prosecutor called arguments about Heaps’ medical conditions “just a ploy as I see it to get the defendant out.”

The judge said at the hearing in February that he still found Heaps “to be a danger to the community,” adding that he did not find any dramatic change of circumstances since October to warrant granting him bail.

Heaps — who was ordered in 2019 to “cease and desist from the practice of medicine as a condition of bail” after he was first charged that year — served as a gynecologist/oncologist, affiliated with UCLA, for nearly 35 years. At various times, he saw patients at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and at his office at 100 Medical Plaza.

At one time, he was reportedly the highest paid physician in the UC system and had treated about 6,000 patients, attorneys said.

More than 500 lawsuits were filed against Heaps and UCLA, accusing the school of failing to protect patients after becoming aware of the misconduct.

Last May, attorneys for 312 former patients of Heaps announced a $374 million settlement of abuse lawsuits against the University of California.

The settlement came on top of a $243.6 million resolution of lawsuits involving about 200 patients announced in February 2022, and a $73 million settlement of federal lawsuits previously reached involving roughly 5,500 plaintiffs.

The lawsuits alleged that UCLA actively and deliberately concealed Heaps’ sexual abuse of patients. UCLA continued to allow Heaps to have unfettered sexual access to female patients — many of whom were cancer patients — at the university, plaintiffs’ attorneys alleged in the lawsuits.

UCLA issued a statement last May saying, “This agreement, combined with earlier settlements involving other plaintiffs, resolves the vast majority of the claims alleging sexual misconduct by James Heaps, a former UCLA Health physician.

“The conduct alleged to have been committed by Heaps is reprehensible and contrary to our values. We are grateful to all those who came forward, and hope this settlement is one step toward providing some level of healing for the plaintiffs involved.

“We are dedicated to providing the highest quality care that respects the dignity of every patient. We are taking all necessary steps to ensure our patients’ well-being in order to maintain the public’s confidence and trust,” the statement continued.

​ Orange County Register