The California Attorney General’s Office is closing in on a decision on whether to proceed with a high-profile rape case involving a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend, a prosecutor said Wednesday, April 21, with the office likely to seek dismissal of at least some criminal counts.
Less than a year after local prosecutors tried – and failed – to have the criminal charges against Dr. Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley dismissed, the state prosecutor who inherited the criminal case told Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven Bromberg that the decision regarding the future of the case is “imminent.”
“We expect to move forward on some counts but not all counts,” Deputy Attorney General Yvette Martinez told the judge when pressed during Wednesday’s hearing.
Martinez said the decision on whether to proceed needs to be approved by Rob Bonta, the newly appointed state attorney general. Judge Bromberg questioned why the department’s political leader, rather than the prosecutor directly involved in the case, would make that decision.
“When politicians start getting involved in the case, members of the judicial branch get nervous,” Bromberg said.
“Our decision will be based on the evidence and not at all on politics,” Martinez responded. “The fact is, I am the trial attorney, and not the boss.”
Robicheaux and Riley each face more than a dozen felony counts, including those for rape, kidnapping and possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell. Martinez did not specify which charges could be dropped.
Bromberg agreed to continue the hearing to May 14 but made it clear he expects a decision from state prosecutors by then. The judge will make the final decision on whether to dismiss any criminal charges.
The case drew national attention when it was filed in 2018 during the term of then-District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, who in widely covered news conferences accused the couple of meeting women at restaurants and bars in Newport Beach, drugging them and then luring them to Robicheaux’s apartment to sexually assault them.
Under current-District Attorney Todd Spitzer, local prosecutors reversed course, saying there was a lack of evidence to proceed with the case and argued that the couple are swingers whose sexual encounters and drug use was consensual.
Attorney’s representing most of the alleged victims have repeatedly battled efforts to dismiss the case, noting that the women live across the country, have never spoken to one another and yet leveled similar allegations against Robicheaux and Riley.
Despite the request by the DA’s Office, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones refused to dismiss the case, ruling that it should go before a jury. Jones also took the rare step of removing the DA’s Office from the case, finding it was “hopelessly conflicted,” and handing the prosecution to the Attorney General’s Office.
The case has drawn multiple allegations of undue political influence.
Spitzer has charged that Rackauckas, his predecessor and political rival, manufactured the case for political purposes.
More recently, a DA’s investigator, in a lawsuit against the county, alleged that Spitzer had colluded with defense attorneys representing Robicheaux and Riley to sabotage the case.
Rackauckas and Spitzer have denied the allegations.
