An Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday unsealed a search warrant issued in the case against a Newport Beach orthopedic surgeon and his teacher girlfriend, who are accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women they met in bars and restaurants.
Last week, Judge Greg Jones asked reporters to return copies of the then-sealed search warrant after Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, a candidate for district attorney, released copies of the document, which he said he obtained before it was sealed. The warrant had also been obtained by some news organizations before it was sealed on Sept. 11.
Jones is presiding over the case against Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 38, and Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, who are accused of drugging their alleged victims before sexually assaulting them. They have pleaded not guilty to felony charges, including rape by use of drugs, assault with intent to commit sexual offenses and other crimes.
Spitzer said the judge’s reversal vindicated him amid criticism from his rival, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, whose office blasted the supervisor for what they claimed was a violation of a court order.
Spitzer, however, said prosecutors didn’t properly seal the document in the first place.
“The DA’s office was wrong and I knew they were wrong because they practice lazy law,” he said. “They owe me a deep and public apology because they put out a press release on their website saying I violated a court order and nothing could be further from the truth. They defamed me and they better apologize and take it back.”
Susan Schroeder, the district attorney’s chief of staff, said the ruling “hardly” vindicated Spitzer.
“He wasn’t vindicated,” she said. “The court said that because he handed it out, the cat’s out of the bag and it grew kittens.”
Schroeder added, “The fact of the matter is that it doesn’t change the fact that he knowingly gave out and distributed sealed court documents on a rape case, further traumatizing the rape victims.”
The alleged victims, in an affidavit prepared by prosecutors, said they are now hesitant to further cooperate in the case because they are concerned about their privacy, Schroeder said.
As for whether prosecutors would file an ethics complaint with the State Bar, Schroeder said, “We’re discussing all of our legal options at this point.”
Prosecutors have no plans to appeal Jones’ ruling, she added.
When prosecutors and defense attorneys learned Spitzer had handed out copies of the warrant to various members of the media, they complained to Jones, who then asked reporters for the Orange County Register, Associated Pres and other outlets to hand back the document.
Attorneys for the Register and AP on Friday filed a motion to lift Jones’ order to not disseminate information from the search warrant. The attorneys argued the order is a “presumptively unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.”
The attorneys noted the search warrant was public for eight months before being sealed. Reporters from other news organizations which obtained copies of the warrant before it was sealed were also asked to turn the documents back in and not report information in it, the attorneys argued in the motion.
Spitzer released copies of the search warrant that he redacted in parts to make his case that prosecutors sat on evidence in the case for too long while the suspects remained free. Spitzer also wanted to rebut Rackauckas’ claim that he had only learned of the case within a couple of weeks of the case filing.
Prior to the hearing, Spitzer said he “completely agrees” with the media organizations’ argument.
“You can’t take something away from a journalist that was given to them as a public record,” he said. “There is absolutely no argument from anybody on either sides that is saying this document was sealed when it was secured by me and other journalists. It was in the court file for up to eight months as a public record, so the judge is going to be very hard-pressed to not grant the media’s request to give them back copies of the warrant.”
Under state law, officials “can’t seal warrants without an absolute showing of using the least means available to keep information from the public, and the reason for that law is the public has a right to know … that law enforcement is properly using the awesome power of going into someone’s home,” Spitzer added.
UC Irvine law professor Henry Weinstein told City News Service last week that a judge cannot seal a document that has already been obtained when it was public and written about.
“You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube,” Weinstein said. “The whole idea of, first of all, sealing something that has been written about is absurd and it is contradictory to First Amendment principles in this country.”
Robicheaux, who in 2013 was named Orange County’s “Most Eligible Bachelor” by Orange Coast magazine and in 2014 appeared on the Bravo show “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male,” is charged with sexually assaulting seven women and Riley is charged in five cases. The alleged assaults date back to 2009 and continued through mid-2017, prosecutors said.