More accusers face O.C. couple charged with rape

As more than half a dozen women came forward Wednesday to accuse a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend of sexually assaulting them, one alleged victim described the couple as a “Bonnie and Clyde” team who drugged her and then forced her to participate in sexual acts, according to court documents.

The new accusers have come forward just one day after Orange County prosecutors charged Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 38, and Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, with rape by drugs, oral copulation by anesthesia, assault with intent to commit sexual offenses and other crimes.

Some of the women lodging new allegations are from outside California, and investigators are continuing to vet more possible victims, said Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff at the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Also on Wednesday, the Medical Board of California said it has opened an investigation into Robicheaux’s conduct.

Attorneys for Robicheaux and Riley said the two “unequivocally” deny the allegations of nonconsensual sex.

“They have been aware of these accusations for a number of months and each of them will formally deny the truth of these allegations at their first opportunity in court,” lawyers Philip Cohen and Scott Borthwick said in a joint statement. “Dr. Robicheaux and Ms. Riley believe that such allegations do a disservice to, and dangerously undermine, the true victims of sexual assault, and they are eager to have the proper spotlight shed on this case in a public trial.”

The charges filed this week stem from complaints made by two women who separately told police they were brought to Robicheaux’s house on 44th Street and assaulted.

According to documents filed in court, one of the women told police that she met Robicheaux at China Palace, a restaurant and bar located on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach, in April 2016. The two exchanged phone numbers, and about a week later, the woman accepted an invitation to meet aboard a boat docked in Newport Harbor along with Robicheaux, Riley and several others.

The woman told police that after the boat ride, she was “very tired and very intoxicated” and boarded a golf cart with Robicheaux and Riley back to the doctor’s home, where she was unable to walk and had to be helped inside. The couple carried her upstairs to a bed, she said, where the doctor gave her two pills and she “immediately felt lethargic.”

The woman told police that Robicheaux then had unprotected sex with her while Riley recorded it with an iPhone. She also told police that Riley performed oral sex on her.

“The victim felt paralyzed by the apparent drugs and did not feel as though she could physically resist Robicheaux and Riley while they were having sex with her,” police said in court documents. “Additionally, she did not want to tell them to stop because she thought they may become aggressive with her and she was in no condition to defend herself.”

A toxicology report showed that the woman had cocaine, ecstasy and MDA, a stimulant known as the “love drug,” in her system.

The second woman told police she lost consciousness while drinking with the couple in a Newport Beach bar in 2016. The woman told police she was taken to Robicheaux’s apartment, where the couple began “sexually assaulting her with the intent to commit rape.” The woman screamed for help, and the physician’s neighbor called Newport police, court documents say.

No arrests were made after either incident because evidence initially did not meet the standard to do so. Detectives continued to work the case for two years, however.

As part of that investigation, detectives searched Robicheaux’s home in January and found video of at least one of the alleged victims being assaulted. They also discovered numerous videos and photographs of other potential victims on the couple’s phones, some of which were taken at festivals including Burning Man and Splash House in Palm Springs, prosecutors said.

“There are a substantial number of videos. I cannot tell you if it is tens or hundreds; it is certainly more than tens,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas told reporters Tuesday. “It appears [the women] are highly intoxicated beyond the ability to consent or resist; they are barely responsive to the defendants’ sexual advances.”

The search turned up large quantities of illegal drugs, including GHB, MDMA and cocaine, prosecutors said. It also uncovered two illegal, unregistered assault rifles, four other firearms and several large-capacity magazines.

Robicheaux and Riley were arrested last week and released on $100,000 bail each.