Judge Decries Toxic Politics Of Reality TV Dr. Serial Rape Case

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — An Orange County judge declined Friday to immediately rule on a request by prosecutors to drop charges against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend, who are accused of drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women, saying he wants to review the case in more depth.

Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones gave attorneys on both sides until March 19 to file written arguments, and also asked for written copies of statements submitted by two alleged victims.

Jones scheduled another hearing for April 3.

The judge, who was the magistrate who signed off on a search warrant at the beginning of the case, said he wished to make an "intelligent, meaningful" ruling, and indicated he was troubled by the political overtones of the case.

"Politics have infected this case," Jones told the attorneys during the hearing.

The politicizing of the case is "a toxic cocktail, and that's the problem here," Jones added.

Spitzer said his office is probing the role an investigator in his office played in the writing of the search warrant affidavit that Jones signed off on. This week, attorneys in a civil suit filed against the defendants won a motion to depose District Attorney's Office investigator Jennifer Kearns in the case.

Spitzer emphasized that he walled himself off from the investigation after assigning it to deputy district attorneys Rick Zimmer and Karyn Stokke to work on it full-time. Zimmer assured Jones there was "zero pressure on us" to make a recommendation one way or the other on the case.

Zimmer and Stokke said they spent months repeatedly going over huge volumes of evidence, which led them to believe they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants intentionally incapacitated the victims to sexually assault them.

Jones heard statements read aloud in court from two of the victims in the case. Robicheaux and Riley, however, did not hear the statements as they left the hearing and returned when they were finished.

One of the victims, represented by retired prominent prosecutor Matt Murphy, said his client was "terrified" and did not wish to make a statement at this time.

Another victim said she was a law student when she alleged she was sexually assaulted by Robicheaux. She did not report it to authorities because she worried it would affect her legal career aspirations and out of concern how it would affect her parents.

When she saw news of the defendants' arrest in September of 2018, she said she felt guilty she hadn't come forward earlier. She said she felt "shock, horror, numb."

The woman said the defense attorneys then began harassing her, her parents and her friends with private investigators repeatedly calling her and showing up at her office. She said the questioning of her parents finally prompted her to tell them what happened.

She said her friend was forced to sit for a three-hour deposition in the civil case in which she was asked by the criminal defense attorney about her sexual habits.

She also criticized Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer for not giving her more than a 10-minute heads-up before he held a news conference announcing his intention to seek a dismissal of charges. She said later in the day, he agreed to speak with her on a conference call with several others from his office.

Another victim said in a statement read by her attorney Michael Fell, "I had never met the defendant before I found myself drugged and in their home the next morning."

The woman implored other sexual assault victims to report what happened to authorities no matter what happens in this case.

"Just because my case got dropped doesn't mean yours will," she said.

Cohen defended the legal tactics and told Jones, "There's a complete lack of evidence to prove (the case) beyond a reasonable doubt."

But whenever Cohen veered toward discussing the facts in the case, Jones headed him off. When Cohen complained he wouldn't be able to rebut what the victims said in their statements, Jones said there was nothing stopping him from talking to reporters after the hearing.

Spitzer held a news conference Tuesday to announce his decision to drop charges against Dr. Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley, claiming the case was used for political gain by former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas during his re-election campaign.

But Spitzer also insisted a review of the case by top prosecutors in his office found no concrete evidence needed to prove the case.

"There is not a single piece of evidence or video or photo that shows an unconscious or incapacitated woman being sexually assaulted. Not one," Spitzer said.

Robicheaux, 39, and Riley, 32, are charged with drugging and sexually assaulting multiple victims. Robicheaux is charged in connection with seven victims, while Riley is charged with five.

When the charges were announced in 2018, Rackauckas described the pair as swingers who would take advantage of their good looks to meet women in social settings, then drug them and take them home, where they were sexually assaulted.

Rackauckas claimed investigators found thousands of videos depicting the pair's activities, and suggested there might be hundreds of alleged victims.

Prior to Friday's hearing, Robicheaux and Riley spoke to ABC News, saying they were shocked by the charges against them, denying they committed any crimes and insisting their lives were thrown into turmoil by the allegations.

"Within about an hour, my whole life was ripped away from me," Robicheaux said. "I was fired from every hospital. I was suspended from my career, my practice."

He said the couple are "still in shock. Still can't believe this has happened to us."

The surgeon said news that charges might be dropped against them felt like a chance to "get your life back."

"(You're a) dead person walking, and now a breath of life is breathed back into you," he said.

Robicheaux once appeared on a TV reality show called "Online Dating Rituals of the American Male."

While announcing plans to drop the case, Spitzer pointed to comments made by Rackauckas during a recent deposition in a lawsuit stemming from the case, in which the former district attorney conceded that he anticipated getting publicity by announcing the charges during his re-election campaign.

"After the depositions, I was freaked out," Spitzer said. "I was very disturbed. I have the former elected and sworn district attorney of Orange County admitting that this case was used for campaign purposes."

Rackauckas told City News Service that while he conceded that the case was expected to generate publicity, he did not approve the filing of charges to boost his re-election campaign.

Spitzer on Tuesday also accused Rackauckas of making a public "misstatement" that there may be more than 1,000 potential victims, a claim that prompted hundreds of phone calls into the district attorney's office.

A civil suit filed by one of the accusers against the defendants and seeking $22 million in damages is pending.

Spitzer's announcement Tuesday reopened a long-brewing feud between him and Rackauckas. The former district attorney criticizing Spitzer for turning his back on the accusers in the case.

Rackauckas said he was "very concerned that Todd's latest stunt will deter future sexual assault victims from coming forward."

Rackauckas, who lost his re-election bid to Spitzer in November 2018, said his successor "stabbed Marsy's Law in the guts," referring to the state law that gives victims more say in criminal proceedings.

"My heart goes out to the women who had the courage to come forward and report a sexual assault and I hope that they are able to heal," Rackauckas said.

By PAUL ANDERSON, City News Service