Photo: File: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/AP

FILE - UCLA gynecologist James Heaps appears in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, June 26, 2019. The University of California has agreed to pay $375 million to more than 300 women who said they were sexually abused by a longtime UCLA gynecologist. The announcement Tuesday, May 24, 2022, brings total payouts by the university in lawsuits against Dr. Heap to nearly $700 million. That’s the largest amount paid by a public university in a wave of sexual misconduct scandals involving campus doctors. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)

A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has received an 11-year sentence after sexually abusing his patients.

According toThe Daily Bruin, the university’s student newspaper, James Heaps, 66, was a faculty member at the David Geffen School of Medicine and an OB-GYN at UCLA Health from 2014 to 2018.

Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 03: UCLA Gynecologist Dr. James Heaps is taken into custody as he appears in Los Angeles Superior Court where additional charges were filed against him this morning. Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Michael Carter handed down his sentence while also ordering him to register as a sex offender,reports the Associated Press. A lawyer for Heaps did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

According to ABC7, more than 500 lawsuits had been filed against Heaps and UCLA, alleging that the institution failed to protect his patients after learning about his misconduct.

The Los Angeles Timesreportsthat the women involved with the cases testified that the former doctor “groped them, penetrated them with his ungloved hand, and committed acts of sexual stimulation under the guise of medical examinations.”

University Chancellor Gene Block and Vice Chancellor John Mazziottadenounced his actionsin an open letter on June 2019.

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“Sexual abuse in any form is unacceptable and represents an inexcusable breach of the physician-patient relationship. We are deeply sorry that a former UCLA physician violated our policies and standards, our trust, and the trust of his patients,” the letter reads in apart.

After initiating an independent review of the case, the university agreed to pay nearly $700 million in payouts to his victims,reportsThe Washington Post.

source: people.com