An Orange County Superior Court judge is expected to rule Friday whether a hand surgeon and his girlfriend should go on trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting two women.
Grant Robicheaux, 42, and Cerissa Riley, 36, were charged about five years ago, but the case has taken myriad twists and turns before it was finally brought before Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen last month for preliminary hearing.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office was recused from prosecuting the case, so the Attorney General’s Office has taken it over.
Since the Attorney General’s Office took over the case, attorneys representing the defendants have filed various motions challenging the original search warrant and alleging outrageous governmental conduct, all of which have been rejected. A civil suit filed by one of the alleged victims against the defendants, which the lead criminal defense attorney has used to gather evidence of his own, was dismissed earlier this year at the plaintiff’s request.
Robicheaux previously 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 could still be used by prosecutors as further evidence of a pattern of behavior at trial.
“The evidence presented at the preliminary hearing… demonstrates that the defendants collaborated to drug and sexually assault Jane Does 1 and 2, that they had access and control over controlled substances, and that Robicheaux illegally possessed firearms,” Deputy Attorney General Namita Patel wrote in court papers.
“Both defendants assaulted Jane Doe 2 with the intent to commit rape of an intoxicated person,” Patel added. “Beginning April 15, 2017, Jane 2 conversed with Robicheaux via the Bumble application. She did not know him, but learned that he was a doctor, who had been on a show on Bravo, which made him a legitimate person in her eyes. Once she began conversing with him, however, a very persistent Robicheaux, over the course of two days, offered to meet with Doe 2, a stranger, five times.”
Over the online conversation, Robicheaux invited her to a peninsula after party, Patel said. He invited her over for a “sunset hot tub session with a couple of people at his home.” She said she did not wish to join strangers for something like that.
They later agreed to meet for drinks and told her he would be home before that cooking an Easter Jambalaya while hanging out with best friend, Cerissa, Patel said. She agreed to meet for drinks only that night and was “surprised” to see Riley there because she thought it was a date with the doctor, prosecutors said.
Robicheaux said Riley was a “good friend visiting from out of town,” Patel said, adding that it showed the two “worked together to lower Jane Doe 2’s defenses.”
Riley “earned her trust by being nice and friendly,” Patel said.
After several drinks, they took an Uber ride to another bar where the doctor bought more drinks and Riley “offered her cocaine,” Patel said. The victim said she had never done drugs but “trusted Riley,” ingested the narcotic and her next memory was walking up the stairs to Robicheaux’s home,” prosecutors said.
The victim had “memories of only portions of her time at Robicheaux’s home. She recalled waking up in defendant Robicheaux’s home, with both defendants touching her in a sexual manner,” Patel said.
As she was groped and undressed the victim said she had a “panic attack, and was crying hysterically,” because she “did not have control of her body and was unable to stand up or walk properly.”
The victim said she did not want to continue, but they refused to stop, Patel alleged.
“Because they would not stop, Jane Doe 2 suggested Robicheaux and Riley engage in intercourse with each other instead,” Patel said.
Robicheaux “did cocaine off of Riley’s body” at one point, Patel said. Riley “attempted to comfort Jane Doe 2, who was crying, and told Doe 2 that she did not have to do anything she did not want to,” Patel said.
Riley offered to get her water and Robicheaux got it for her, poured some sort of powder in it and handed it to the victim who “took a few sips before realizing she should not. Her mind was slow to react. She asked what was in the water and Robicheaux told her it was PCP,” Patel said.
Patel argued it showed intent to sexually assault her as she was incapacitated. At some point the victim ended up alone with Riley after the alleged victim locked Robicheaux out, Patel said.
Riley allegedly told her to unlock the door or he “is going to hurt us,” Patel said.
“Riley appeared scared, cried and said, `He makes me do this.’ ” according to Patel. “This statement was nothing more than another disingenuous effort by Riley to manipulate Jane Doe 2 by pretending that Riley, too, was one of Robicheaux’s victims and by continuing to befriend Doe 2.”
The victim grabbed her phone at one point, went to a bathroom and took pictures of IDs of the two “in case something happened to her,” Patel said.
Patel argued there is corroborating evidence such as rideshare receipts, text messages to friends and conversations she had with other friends.
A drug expert also testified about the effects the alcohol and narcotics can have on someone.
One of the victims told investigators that she and her roommate at the time went to Newport Beach restaurant-bar, Sharkeez, where one of the alleged victims had a few drinks — a vodka and soda with a “splash” of cranberry — before meeting Riley in October 2016, Gamble testified. Riley said she was alone at the bar and asked if she could hang with the two women, Newport Beach police Detective Marie Gamble testified.
The alleged victim said she was “concerned” about Riley being alone at the bar, Gamble said. Riley told them that her boyfriend was at work at the time, Gamble said.
Just as the woman and her roommate were about to leave, Robicheaux showed up and Riley introduced him as her boyfriend, Gamble testified. The group decided to stay and continue partying, and when the alleged victim said she was going to get another drink, Robicheaux volunteered to buy the next round, Gamble testified.
The alleged victim told Gamble that she felt as if Riley attempted to block her view or distract her when she looked over at Robicheaux buying the drinks at the bar, Gamble said.
The alleged victim “took a few sips” of the drink Robicheaux brought her, and then she had no memories of the rest of the night until she woke up in a “dark room, completely naked,” Gamble testified.
Next to her was her roommate, who was also “topless,” and when the woman attempted to rouse her friend she could not wake her, Gamble testified.
The woman — “feeling loopy” — scrounged around for her clothes, but could not find her top, Gamble testified. She said she fell out of the bed and was hanging on to things to stay on her feet, the detective testified.
The woman was “concerned” her roommate was not waking up, Gamble said.
Then she saw Robicheaux in a bathroom and confronted him, Gamble said. The defendant had a “what the (expletive)” look on his face and “grabbed” the woman by the arms, Gamble testified the alleged victim told her.
Robicheaux said, “You wanted to be here, you wanted to come back,” the accuser told Gamble.
The woman also accused Robicheaux of attempting to kiss her and she tried to push him away, Gamble testified.
“It started going south very quickly and he started to hit her and continued to repeat, `You wanted this, you wanted to come here,”’ Gamble testified.
The woman attempted to block the punches to her arms and chest and tried to scratch him, Gamble testified. When the woman fell down, Robicheaux allegedly began kicking her on the legs and back, according to the detective.
Riley allegedly tried to intervene, saying that Robicheaux was “going too far and to stop and it wasn’t worth it,” Gamble testified.
The woman has told investigators her vagina felt “numb” and “bruised inside” after the encounter, Gamble testified. She also suffered so many bruises to her legs she couldn’t wear shorts, the woman told Gamble.
The woman’s roommate told Gamble the alleged victim’s screaming for help woke her up, and they locked themselves in the bathroom until officers arrived, Gamble testified.
The woman spoke with patrol officers and investigators in 2018, and then again on a phone call with prosecutors and Gamble, who was on vacation at the time, she testified.
When police later executed a search warrant at the residence they found numerous prescriptions, baggies of a powdery substance and multiple guns, some of which were registered to Robicheaux and some to a family member, prosecutors said. Among the guns found in a safe were a Glock handgun, shotguns, an AR-15 rifle, and an AK-47, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors brushed off suggestions about the alleged victim’s past history with alcohol, which includes a DUI conviction and “statements she has made in the past about her own blackouts,” adding that “none of this evidence has bearing on the night in question. None of this evidence disproves the allegations made by Jane Doe 1 through Detective Gamble. Indeed, Jane Doe 1 has no motive. Her own behavior when she woke up… does not describe someone who willingly engaged in the events of the night.”
The two roommates had a falling out because the alleged victim “sued (the roommate) after they moved out, they were no longer friends, and they were no longer on speaking terms. In other words, (the roommate) had a motive not to support Jane Doe 1,” Patel said.
A search of Robicheaux’s home yielded “GHB, cocaine, MDMA, and psilocybin” in a bedroom closet in a small safe, prosecutors said.
The couple’s defense attorneys — Philip Cohen, Scott Borthwick and Shawn Holley — argued that the filing of charges have inflicted “irreparable damage” to them.
“The evidence introduced at the preliminary hearing reflects that Robicheaux and Riley were in a `swinging’ relationship, used and shared drugs and alcohol, and sometimes invited other women to join them in sex,” the defense said. “None of this makes them rapists.”
The defense attorneys said the prosecution’s case “rests on the unfounded assumption that anyone who engages in casual sex while drinking and using drugs also intends to rape anyone who elects to party with them, but ultimately opts not to join them in a sexual encounter. Not only is this an absurd assumption, it is absolutely belied by the evidence in this case.”
The defense said the woman who alleged she was attacked Oct. 2, 2016, told officers Robicheaux “had not tried to rape her or take advantage of her in any way,” but over the years her account “has changed dramatically.”
She said that she tried to tell the officers but now claims they laughed her off, the defense attorneys argued.
As for the other accuser, she “voluntarily drank more than she typically would and voluntarily did cocaine for… the first time in her life,” the defense said.
The defense attorneys continued hammering away at the alleged victim’s past history with substance abuse and argued that she “lied to Detective Gamble about never blacking out from alcohol,” and also being dishonest with “medical staff after being arrested at Skybar when she said she does not drink or use drugs.”