Sexual assault probe of California physician, girlfriend expands
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - At least a dozen more women have come forward with allegations against a California surgeon and reality TV personality arrested last week with his girlfriend on charges of drugging and raping two women, the Orange County prosecutor said on Friday.
Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 38, appears in a booking photo provided by the Newport Beach Police Department, September 19, 2018. Newport Beach Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
Grant Robicheaux, 38, and Cerissa Riley, 31, were arrested last week on charges of rape by use of drugs, oral copulation by a controlled substance, and sexual assault involving two women - one who the couple allegedly met at a Newport Beach bar and the other at a restaurant.
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference his office is widening its probe of Robicheaux, a one-time subject of the Bravo cable network show “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male,” and Riley.
“We’re expanding our inquiries to several states as well as other parts of California,” he said, adding that in the case of Robicheaux, investigators are examining possible crimes dating back 20 years.
Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, appears in a booking photo provided by the Newport Beach Police Department September 19, 2018. Newport Beach Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
Robicheaux’s lawyer, Philip Cohen, told his own news conference the couple had been aware they were under investigation since January and made no attempt to flee or go into hiding. Cohen and two other defense lawyers said the couple, each of whom remains free on $100,000 bond, would contest the charges in court.
Rackauckas said Robicheaux, an orthopedic surgeon, “may have targeted victims through dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble,” but there was no evidence to suggest any of his medical patients were victimized.
Since news of the Sept. 12 arrests broke, investigators have fielded more than 50 phone calls to a tip line that led to more than 12 “credible leads” to potential additional victims, Rackauckas said.
A search of the doctor’s home turned up hundreds of videos and photographs depicting women who appeared to be too intoxicated to consent to sexual advances and in some cases were barely responsive, the prosecutor had said previously.
(In second paragraph, corrects spelling of defendant’s first name to Cerissa, not Cerisa. In third paragraph, deletes extraneous repetition of defendants’ first names and age.)
Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Tarrant
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.