Decision delayed on whether to remove judge or DA from rape case against Newport Beach surgeon, girlfriend

A decision on whether to remove either a judge or the Orange County District Attorney’s Office from the high-profile criminal case against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend accused of drugging and raping several women has been delayed by more than a month.

The delay, until Aug. 7, comes as the DA’s Office seeks to have criminal charges against Dr. Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley dismissed, attorneys for some of the victim’s seek to have the local prosecutor’s removed from the case, and defense attorney’s for the couple seek to have the judge presiding over the case step down.

Less than two years ago, then-DA Tony Rackauckas alleged that Robicheaux and Riley met women in Newport Beach restaurants and bars and then drugged them and lured them back to Robicheaux’s apartment to sexually assault them. Both were charged with rape and kidnapping connected to seven alleged victims.

But earlier this year, District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced that his office would seek to dismiss the charges, citing a lack of evidence. Prosecutors now describe Robicheaux and Riley as swingers, whose sexual encounters with women and drug use was consensual.

The move to dismiss charges has angered at least some of the alleged victims, whose attorneys note that they didn’t know one another and live across the country yet described similar stories of sexual assaults.

Judge Gregory Jones earlier this month refused to drop the charges, and questioned the ability of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to remain involved with the case; possibly the California Attorney General’s Office takes the case. Jones questioned whether it was appropriate to drop the charges before the alleged victims have a chance to testify.

Last week attorneys for Robicheaux and Riley requested that Judge Jones step down from the case over the appearance of bias, based on a meeting between the judge and Matt Murphy, a former Orange County homicide prosecutor now representing some of the alleged victims.

The defense describes Murphy as a “longtime deputy/ally” of former DA Rackauckas – a political rival of Spitzer’s.

Murphy has countered that he was required to meet with the judge to discuss issues surrounding his representation of a client, and denied being a political ally of Rackauckas, noting he never endorsed the former DA during any of his election campaigns.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Matthew Anderson, who temporarily stepped in to preside over a brief hearing in the case on Friday, said Judge Jones needs more time to respond to the defense’s allegations.