A Brea hand surgeon who was originally accused with his girlfriend of drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women had one of the drug charges to which he pleaded guilty dismissed Wednesday.
The dismissal of the misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance leaves Dr. Grant Robicheaux with only a conviction for a felony count of possession of an assault weapon, which may be reduced to a misdemeanor at the defendant’s next hearing March 28, according to court records.
The plea deal the 44-year-old doctor reached a year ago called for the drug count to be dismissed and the felony gun charge to be reduced to a misdemeanor if he complied with the terms of his probation and completed 32 hours of community service and 16 hours of drug-education classes.
The defendant completed the community service with the OneOC nonprofit.
In May of this year, Robicheaux, who remains under probation, received permission from an Orange County Superior Court judge to leave the country to find work in Costa Rica and Panama, because his attorney said he was having difficulty finding jobs in Southern California, according to court records.
Robicheaux and his girlfriend, Cerissa Riley, filed a legal claim against the county last Dec. 19, which is a necessary precursor to a lawsuit against a governmental agency. That claim was rejected and the doctor filed a federal lawsuit, which was thrown out on Oct. 16, according to court records.
Robicheaux and Riley named former Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, his former chief of staff Susan Kang, and investigator Jennifer Kearns.
U.S. District Judge Wesley Hsu granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice and ordered the two to cover the county’s legal costs of defending the suit, according to court records.
The two alleged that prosecutors made “false and misleading statements” about the case against them.
Robicheaux was placed on four years of probation in July by the Medical Board of California, according to records. He cannot perform surgeries without a proctor for 10 cases and cannot practice medicine until he completes a clinical diagnostic evaluation and cannot supervise physician assistants and advanced practice nurses.
Robicheaux pleaded guilty in November of last year to the felony gun possession charge and a misdemeanor drug count.
The resolution followed a hearing in October of last year in which Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen agreed to dismiss felony charges of poisoning and sale of phencyclidine against Robicheaux and Riley.
That left no charges remaining against Riley, but Robicheaux still at that time faced a felony charge of possession of an assault weapon and four misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance, including GHB, more commonly known as the date-rape drug. As part of the plea deal, those remaining counts, including the GHB charge, were dismissed.
The case began five years ago in the heat of a reelection bid by then-District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, who held a widely covered news conference to announce the charges accusing Robicheaux and Riley of targeting women in bars and other settings, drugging them and sexually assaulting them.
The case quickly became a target of then-DA candidate Todd Spitzer, who criticized Rackauckas’ handling of the case and questioned why Rackauckas did not move faster to file it — suggesting the incumbent was using the matter for campaign publicity.
After he was elected, Spitzer called for an internal review of the case, assigned two new prosecutors to the matter and then moved to dismiss all of the charges. That drew protests from several of the alleged victims and an Orange County Superior Court judge refused to toss the case.
Spitzer’s office was eventually recused from the case and the Attorney General’s Office took over.
Robicheaux initially faced charges involving five alleged victims and Riley three alleged victims, but a prior Orange County Superior Court judge granted a motion from prosecutors to reduce the charges. There were initially a total of 13 accusers, some of whom prosecutors had planned to use as witnesses to show a pattern of behavior at trial.