Judge reverses order that limited media’s reporting on case involving Newport Beach surgeon’s alleged sex assaults
A judge on Tuesday reversed an order that had prohibited reporters from publishing details contained in a search warrant in a sexual assault case against a high-profile Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend, siding with media outlets, including the Orange County Register, whose attorney claimed the move was unconstitutional.
Superior Court Judge Gregory Jones said he ordered reporters to hand over copies of a search warrant they obtained from Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer last week “out of an abundance of caution.”
But after reviewing the matter and hearing from attorneys Tuesday, Jones vacated the ruling. Because the warrant was lawfully obtained by reporters and had been publicly available for eight months, he said, “the cat was out of the bag” and the seal was “useless.”
The Orange County Register, The Associated Press and American Broadcasting Companies Inc. had sought to undo the decision to prohibit reporters from publishing information in the warrant. But Jones went a step further, lifting the seal entirely on the document and accompanying police reports.
The January 2018 warrant was publicly available until it was sealed in September, when Dr. Grant William Robicheaux and Cerissa Laura Riley were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, drugging and sexually assaulting two women. But some media outlets had already obtained it.
At a hearing last week, the couple pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Spitzer, who is trying to unseat District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in the November election, last week gave redacted copies of the warrant and affidavit served on the surgeon’s home to a handful of reporters.
The Newport Beach surgeon who once appeared on a cable-network reality show pleaded not guilty, along with his girlfriend, to charges of drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women in attacks that were allegedly recorded on cell phone video.(Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
At a press conference, Spitzer questioned why Rackauckas had waited until September to file charges against Robicheaux and Riley.
Robicheaux, 38, appeared on the short-lived Bravo reality series “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male” in 2014. Riley, 31, lives in Brea and works for a bus company and teaches dance to children.
In court Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Scott Van Camp said it was “unfortunate” that the warrant was not sealed.
“I don’t know why that happened,” he said.
Van Camp said its release violated “the right of privacy and dignity of the victims in this case.”
He said the victims are protected under state law from having sensitive details from the warrant about what happened to them made public. Doing so could discourage more victims from coming forward, he said.
Jones noted that only one victim’s name was printed in the warrant — two others requested their names be kept out of it — because she opted out of staying confidential.
Van Camp countered that other information about the victims in the document, such as sexual orientation and drug use, should remain private.
Duffy Carolan, an attorney representing the news organizations, said keeping reporters from publishing the contents constituted unlawful prior restraint.
“It would be ineffective to bar three organizations from disseminating information when it’s out there and it’s been part of the public record for eight months,” she said.
Robicheaux’s attorney, Philip Cohen, joined prosecutors in asking for the warrant to remain sealed. But he said that if the document were to be released, so should police reports, in order to provide context.
Reached by phone after the hearing, Spitzer called on Rackauckas to offer him a public apology.
“The fact of the matter is that warrant sat in a public file for eight months and if the DA believed that it was such an important document and that public safety was so critical, then they should’ve done their job and made sure it was sealed properly,” he said. “The fact that the DA practices ‘lazy law’ doesn’t mean that they can shoot off their mouths and accuse people of violating the law when nothing of the sort ever happened.”
Carolan said she was pleased with the ruling and gave Jones credit for reversing his own order.
“He recognized that the original sealing was done not in the proper manner and was completely ineffectual,” she said.
Robicheaux and Riley are due back in court Jan. 18.