Prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they are dropping all charges against reality star surgeon Dr. Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend, who were accused of drugging and raping multiple women in California.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement that his review team “unanimously” voted there was “insufficient evidence” to prove this case if it went to trial. Los Angeles Magazine reported that seven women had accused Robicheaux, 39, of sexual assault, while Cerissa Riley, 32, faced accusations from five accusers.
Spitzer said in Wednesday’s statement that his predecessor, then-district attorney Tony Rackauckas had “manufactured” and “misstated” evidence in this case, leading the public to believe Robicheaux and Riley plied as many as 1,000 women with alcohol and drugs before filming the sexual assaults.
Robicheaux and Riley were criminally charged in 2018. The following November, Rackauckas lost his re-election bid to Spitzer.
“As a result of the complete case review I ordered beginning in July, we now know that there was not a single video or photograph depicting an unconscious or incapacitated woman being sexually assaulted,” Spitzer revealed, according to the Daily Beast.
Robicheaux, an orthopedic surgeon, appeared on Bravo’s “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male” in 2014. Authorities previously claimed the couple used their looks to lure women and take them to their upscale Newport Beach home to assault them.
Robicheaux was charged with 17 felonies — including five counts of rape — while Riley was facing 13 felonies. The couple had pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed they were swingers who only had consensual sexual liaisons.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Spitzer said he will formally request the court dismiss the charges this week. He also invited any of the women who levied allegations against Robicheaux or Riley to his office to discuss Wednesday’s announcement.
Spitzer commented, “What the prior district attorney and his chief of staff did to these defendants and to the women involved in the case is a travesty.”
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[Featured image: Grant Robicheaux, Cerissa Riley/Orange County District Attorney’s Office]