California Couple Accused of Rape to See Charges Dropped After D.A. Announces Alleged Evidence Doesn't Exist

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A California doctor and his girlfriend who were accused of drugging and sexually assaulting several women are expected to see the charges against them dropped. 

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The reason? Lack of evidence, according to prosecutors. 

In 2018, Grant William Robicheaux, 39, and Cerissa Laura Riley, 32, were charged with 17 counts, including kidnapping, rape by use of drugs and oral copulation by anesthesia.

Then-Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said the couple met their victims at bars and restaurants, drugged them and then took them home, where they sexually assaulted them.

Robicheaux, who appeared on the 2014 Bravo show "Online Dating Rituals of the American Male," and Riley allegedly videotaped the attacks, Rackauckas said. He also said at the time that investigators believed there were more unidentified victims out there.

Rackauckas’s office claimed there were more than 1,000 videos of women who appeared to be highly intoxicated and “beyond the ability to consent or resist."

However, the current Orange County district attorney, Todd Spitzer, who was elected after the case had been filed, said those videos don’t exist. 

"There is not a single piece of evidence or video or photo that shows an unconscious or incapacitated woman being sexually assaulted. Not one," Spitzer said during a press conference Tuesday. "This office will go to court as soon as possible and seek a dismissal on all the charges against the defendants."

Spitzer said he had assigned new prosecutors to the case, and they decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.

Spitzer criticized Rackauckas and previously called the handling of the case "prosecutorial conduct," the Orange County Register reported. Rackauckas denied any wrongdoing on his part, and said he disagrees with the decision to toss out the case.

The couple pleaded not guilty has maintained their innocence. 

"All allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend Cerissa Riley," their attorney previously said in a statement. "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.

"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."

Spitzer also apologized to the couple at the press conference.

“What happened in their lives and how this case materialized is nothing short of a travesty,” he said. 

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