Proposed but never produced, ‘OC Justice’ reality show draws fire from Orange County defense attorneys

Plans for a proposed, but never produced, reality show called “OC Justice,” which would have followed the lives of local prosecutors and their headline-grabbing cases, has emerged as an unusual twist in the ongoing rape case against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend.

A video “sizzle reel” mean to pitch the reality program opens with sweeping views of Orange County’s opulent ocean-front homes and bikini-clad beach-goers while intoning gravely that “all this beauty has a dark side.” A power-point presentation accompanying the promotional video, which explains the concept behind the proposed show, promises an insider’s look at local prosecutors as they go about their work.

While the show – pitched as “‘Dateline’ intersects with the ‘Real Housewives’” – never got off the ground, it now is now being cited by attorneys representing Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley as proof that the pair were wrongly charged with drugging and raping several women to “drum up buzz” for the failed re-election campaign of former District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

Along with Rackauckas, the defense attorneys are taking aim at former DA Chief of Staff Susan Kang Schroeder and Matt Murphy, a former Orange County homicide prosecutor who is now representing some of Robicheaux and Riley’s alleged victims.

“While in office, Mr. Rackauckas, Ms. Schroeder and Mr. Murphy were motivated not just by a sense of justice, but by a financial, personal, and self-indulgent desire for media fame and fortune,” Attorney Philip Cohen wrote in a newly filed court motion in the case. “As the treatment makes clear, the Rackauckas office believed that salacious cases sell, and that is what they sought to create regardless of the facts.”

Copies of the reality show pitch were recently turned over to the defense attorneys during an exchange of evidence from the DA’s office tied to the ongoing criminal case against Robicheaux and Riley.

Current Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said he declined to take part in the proposed reality show when he took office. Spitzer said he was “deeply troubled” by the role Rackauckas, Murphy and Schroeder may have played in the proposed production.

“Was the district attorney’s office behaving to do justice – being impartial and doing what is in the best interest of justice – or, as the power point and video seems to infer, were they doing justice to line their own pockets?” Spitzer asked.

The DA’s office has given copies to defense attorneys representing other defendants mentioned in the pitch, including convicted killer Daniel Wozniak and convicted serial killer Andrew Urdiales, admitted Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo and Hossein Nayeri, who is awaiting sentencing for the kidnap and torture of a marijuana dispensary owner.

As a result, Spitzer said, any potential impact on the Robicheaux and Riley case could only be the “tip of the iceberg,” worrying that the other high-profile cases could have been “jeopardized.”

“I am not going to tolerate the way they used to run this office,” Spitzer said. “They exploited it for personal, financial gain, and it is intolerable… I got elected to clean up this mess. And I am dealing with a lot of push back from people who have spent the last several decades doing something a certain way.”

Murphy described the release of the reality show pitch as a distraction, alleging that Spitzer is colluding with Robicheaux and Riley’s defense attorneys in order to drop the criminal case, and wants attention taken away from their “horrible treatment of the rape victims.”

“I’m representing a group of rape victims who had the temerity to oppose a dismissal,” Murphy said. “This is how Todd Spitzer retaliates.”

While the pitch paints Murphy as a lead in the proposed show, the former prosecutor said his only involvement was a 20-minute videotaped interview that touched broadly on his work as a prosecutor and the Wozniak murder case.

Murphy said he was never asked to become a lead in a reality show, and described the level of access suggested in the pitch as “unworkable in every way.” As a public employee, a prosecutor couldn’t accept money from such a show, he added.

“That was never discussed or offered in any way,” Murphy said of the potential reality show role. “Nor would I have done it if they asked me to as a deputy DA.”

Murphy noted that in a motion filed with the court several weeks ago he wrote that there would be “some sort of public statement where Mr. Spitzer and/or Mr. Cohen will once again feign outrage and speak in very loud voices.”

Murphy said he believes the producers of the show were the ones who approached the DA’s office. The “sizzle reel” includes the interviews with Rackauckas, Schroeder and other prosecutors, but it isn’t clear if they ever agreed to the level of access promised by the production company pitching the show.

Rackauckas and Schroeder did not respond to requests for comment. The production company behind the proposed reality show could not be reached for comment.

The DA’s Office is currently seeking to have the criminal charges against Robicheaux and Riley dismissed, while attorneys for some of the women seek to have the DA’s Office removed from the case. Meanwhile, defense attorneys for the couple are asking the judge presiding over the case to step down.

At the time the couple was charged, Rackauckas accused them of meeting with women in Newport Beach restaurants and bars and then drugging them and luring them back to Robicheaux’s apartment to rape them.

In a surprise announcement earlier this year, Spitzer said a review of the case by his office found no evidence of sexual assault. Prosecutors now describe the couple as swingers, who took part in consensual sexual encounters with women and drug use.

The DA’s move to dismiss the criminal charges has angered some of the alleged victims. Their attorneys argue they didn’t know each other and live across the country yet described similar stories of sexual assault.

Judge Gregory Jones, who is presiding over the case, has refused to dismiss the charges, and has questioned the ability of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to remain involved in the case.

Attorneys for the couple argue that Judge Jones should step down from the case over the appearance of bias, citing a meeting between the judge and Murphy. A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge is expected to rule on that request.