LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawsuit alleging that a former UCLA gynecologist sexually abused hundreds of women has been settled for $243.6 million.
The amount of the settlement was announced Tuesday by UCLA and some of the lawyers representing 203 women.
It’s one of the hundreds of lawsuits filed by patients who say that Dr. James Heaps groped or otherwise abused them during his 35-year career and that UCLA ignored or concealed the misconduct.
According to the Associated Press, the university opened an investigation into Heaps in 2017 and retired in 2018 when the school declined to renew his contract.
Heaps has pleaded not guilty to 21 sex-abuse criminal charges.
UCLA settled another lawsuit last year for $73 million.
In that case, more than 100 women said from 1983-2018, Heaps groped them and made inappropriate comments while he examined them at the UCLA student health center, the news outlet reported.
Other schools have settled similar lawsuits.
The University of Michigan announced a $490 million settlement last month.
USC’s settlement bill tops $1 billion.