REDDING, Calif. (AP) - There is evidence that a former Redding physician knowingly performed dozens of unnecessary heart surgeries in the mid-1990s, a judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Jack Halpin’s ruling Tuesday allows 23 of Dr. Kevin Miller’s former patients to sue him for fraud, battery, malpractice and other misconduct.

A medical expert’s assertions that Miller habitually used improper preoperative procedures and falsified documents during his tenure at Redding Medical Center from 1994 to 1997 are “sufficient circumstantial evidence” to proceed with a trial, Halpin said in his ruling.

Miller’s case is one of the last remnants of a massive civil case against a group of doctors at the defunct hospital. A 2002 FBI raid of the offices of a cardiologist and a surgeon who allegedly performed unnecessary heart procedures fueled a multiyear criminal investigation.

Miller wasn’t part of the federal case but some of his former patients sued him.

The judge set a single trial for all the claims against Miller, starting Dec. 5.