The high-profile prosecution of a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend who were at one time accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a series of women was again drastically pared back on Friday, signaling that the at-times politically charged criminal case against the couple appears to be nearing an end.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen on Friday morning dismissed criminal charges alleging that Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 43, and Cerissa Riley, 36, poisoned a woman and furnished her with PCP, and that Riley gave the woman cocaine.
Riley is no longer facing any criminal charges, while Robicheaux’s attorney signaled that the doctor is now open to potentially pleading guilty to the remaining gun and drug possession charges prior to a jury trial.
Even before Friday’s ruling, the remaining charges were a far cry from the initial sexual assault allegations prosecutors made against the couple, which were tossed earlier this year.
Five years ago, then DA Tony Rackauckas, in the midst of a fierce and ultimately unsuccessful re-election campaign, described Robicheaux — an orthopedic surgeon who had appeared on the Bravo television show “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male” — and his girlfriend Riley as predators who met young women at local nightspots, drugged them and brought them home to rape them at Robicheux’s Balboa Peninsula home.
The couple immediately denied the allegations, with their attorneys describing them as swingers who took part in consensual drug use and sexual encounters with women.
The case quickly became ensnared in an ever-widening web of politically charged allegations — involving both former DA Rackauckas and current DA Todd Spitzer — hard-fought and heated court battles in front of a series of veteran judges in a virtual revolving door of courtrooms and constant allegations by the defense of a sloppy law enforcement investigation. Rackauckas and Spitzer each blamed the other for mishandling the case, and a judge at one point described it as having been “infected” by politics.
At one point, a judge made the rare decision to take the case away from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and assigned it instead to the California Attorney General’s Office. Prosecutors from that office later told a judge they had walked into a “political firestorm.”
Meanwhile, the number of charged victims dropped dramatically over the years, from seven women shortly after the criminal complaint was initially filed to two victims when prosecutors earlier this year sought to have a judge decide there was enough evidence to proceed to trial.
Some of the women asked out of their case, reportedly believing they had been “grossly mistreated” and “dragged through the mud,” while other alleged victims saw charges tied to them dropped by prosecutors who didn’t believe they had enough evidence to prove those women were sexually assaulted.
Then, Judge Leversen effectively gutted the case in early July, finding that there wasn’t enough evidence to support any of the remaining sexual assault-related charges.
With the most significant — and headline-grabbing — charges tossed, all that was left was lesser counts of drug and gun possession and poisoning.
The charges dismissed by the judge on Friday were tied to a woman who connected with Robicheaux on a dating app and met up with him and Riley at Nobu Newport Beach while visiting Orange County on Easter weekend in 2017.
Attorneys representing that woman have told the judge that she wants to address the court before an agreement over a plea is finalized.
That could complicate the timing of a potential plea, since the woman is in the Israeli military and is apparently serving in that country’s war against Hamas.
The woman alleged that she blacked out after Riley convinced her to use cocaine, and woke up at Robicheaux’s home where she said the couple gave her a drink containing PCP and tried to convince her to have sex with them.
Judge Leversen had gone back and forth on whether the prosecution could still pursue those allegations, with the defense arguing that it was past the statute of limitations for the couple to be prosecuted for those alleged crimes.
Prosecutors argued the statute of limitations was effectively paused once the couple was previously charged with drugging the woman in order to kidnap and rape her.
But the defense countered that there was no way for the drug and poisoning charges to stand on their own once the sexual assault allegations were thrown out. A jury would have been asked to believe that the alleged drugging was meant to facilitate crimes — kidnapping and sexual assault — that the judge himself determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prove occurred, the defense noted in recent court filings.
During a discussion on whether prosecutors would be able to even mention the sexual assault claims during their argument to a jury, Judge Leversen noted that there was “no indication there were drinks forced down (the woman’s) throat or that anyone made her take cocaine in the bathroom” of the club, adding that “She said she didn’t want to participate (in sex) and she didn’t participate.”
Prosecutors countered that Robicheaux and Riley kept adding drugs to the mix in order to overcome the woman’s resistance, but the argument didn’t sway the judge.
Now, all that is left of the criminal case are drug and gun-related charges tied to a police search of Robicheaux’s home prior to his arrest that allegedly turned up cocaine, Gamma-hydroxybutyrate — known as GHB — and MDMA — also known as Ecstasy — and two unregistered weapons, a Bushmaster rifle and a Century Arms RAS47 rifle.
During Friday’s hearing, Robicheaux’s attorney told the Leversen that Robicheaux was open to making an “open plea,” in which he would admit to the charges and leave the sentence up to the judge.
The attorneys met with the judge in his chambers, but it wasn’t clear if Leversen had provided them with an indicated sentence of what Robicheaux could expect if he made such a plea. Robicheaux is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 29.
City News Service contributed to this report.
