Five years after prosecutors announced charges against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend, portraying them as serial predators who drugged vulnerable women, a judge has dismissed the last remaining sex charges in the case.
In ruling there was too little evidence to sue Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting two women, Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen on Friday handed the defendants a victory major but incomplete.
Both men are still charged with slipping GHB into the drink of one of the women, the judge said. Robicheaux, an orthopedic surgeon once considered the county’s “most eligible bachelor” by a local magazine, also faces two counts of unlawful possession of assault weapons, as well as misdemeanor charges. possession of cocaine and other drugs.
Learn more: Prosecutors set to focus on rape case against Orange County doctor and his girlfriend around 2 women
The affair was a tabloid favorite, in part because of Robicheaux’s appearance on the Bravo reality show “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male.”
Defense attorneys portrayed Robicheaux and Riley, a former schoolteacher, as party swingers. Both deny having had non-consensual sex with any of the accusers.
After announcing charges against the couple in 2018, Orange County prosecutors said more than a dozen women had accused Robicheaux of assaulting them, with some alleging Riley’s involvement.
Robicheaux was charged with sexually assaulting five women. Riley was accused of being involved in attacks on three.
Then-Dist. Atti. Tony Rackauckas said a search of Robicheaux’s property revealed “dozens or hundreds” of seemingly incriminating home videos, some featuring women “very intoxicated beyond the ability to consent or resist”.
Rackauckas called the couple predators who found victims in Newport Beach bars and restaurants and lured them to Robicheaux’s home to have sex after swamping them with drugs. One accuser compared them to “Bonnie and Clyde”.
The case quickly became entangled in politics, with Todd Spitzer, who was running for district attorney, accusing Rackauckas of embellishing the case and exploiting it in the hope of getting re-elected.
After Spitzer won, he ordered a reconsideration of the case and announced that there were “serious evidentiary issues”. There were no videos of incompetent women being sexually assaulted, he said.
Learn more: Internal memo criticizes OC district attorney’s review of Robicheaux rape case
But Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones refused to let Spitzer dismiss the charges and took the rare step of removing the local district attorney’s office from the case, saying Spitzer’s position had left his prosecutors “desperately conflicted”.
The California attorney general’s office announced last August that it would prosecute the defendants, focusing on the allegations of the other two victims.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.