LOS ANGELES _ Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer on Tuesday announced that he plans to drop all charges against a Newport Beach doctor and his girlfriend accused of drugging and sexually assaulting several women after a review of their case found no evidence they committed any crimes.
Grant Robicheaux, 39, and Cerissa Riley, 32, were charged in 2018 with drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women. Robicheaux allegedly assaulted seven victims and Riley five. They have both pleaded not guilty.
"The de novo review team unanimously agreed there is insufficient evidence to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt," Spitzer said.
Spitzer has been involved in the case since he was running for Orange County district attorney in 2018 and has been critical of former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas' pretrial statements about the case.
At one point, the two men held dueling news conferences to address the media outside the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Late last year, Spitzer asked the California attorney general's office to consider taking over the case because of a perceived conflict of interest. State prosecutors declined.
Spitzer said he made the request because of complaints from defense attorneys about alleged politicization of the trial and its effect on due process.
"The need to be open to a complete reevaluation in this case was the result of deep concerns I had previously expressed publicly about how the case was exploited for reelection purposes by the former district attorney and his chief of staff," Spitzer said in a statement in October 2019.
Attorneys for Robicheaux have criticized prosecutors for exaggerating the number of videos collected as evidence that allegedly depicted victims of sexual assault in the case.
"The fact is that the videos, having now been reviewed, do not reflect any victims of rape, let alone thousands, hundreds, or tens," attorney Philip Cohen wrote in a January 2019 filing. Spitzer confirmed his office's review of the case confirmed there were no videos depicting rape.
Cohen said in the filing that prosecutors' statements at the beginning of the case "set off a frenzy that completely destroyed the integrity of this case and the defendants' ability to obtain a fair trial."
