Grant Robicheaux, Cerissa Riley sexual assault charges dropped

A California judge on Friday tossed sexual assault charges against former reality TV surgeon Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend Cerissa Riley — who claimed they were swingers after being accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support allegations that the couple drugged and sexually assaulted their two accusers, The Ocean County Register reported.

They are still facing lesser charges of drug and gun possession and poisoning.

Riley reportedly burst into tears as the judge read the ruling. She and Robicheax, who have attended every court hearing together, embraced, according to the outlet. They’ve been freed on $1 million bail ahead of a potential trial.

The ruling concludes years of courtroom debate on whether the high-profile couple were “swingers” or repeated sexual predators.

Prosecutors alleged that Robicheaux and Riley met two women, referred to in court only as Jane Doe 1 and 2, on separate occasions at nightclubs in Newport Beach and they became friends.

The couple allegedly bought them drinks and shared cocaine with one of them, intoxicating them before they came to their Balboa Peninsula home half-naked.

“What are the chances that two women, strangers to one another, will describe similar nights years apart?” Deputy Attorney General Namita Patel asked the judge, according to the Register. “And what is their motive to make it up?”

Jane Doe 1 claimed she was assaulted on Oct. 2, 2016, at the surgeon’s home. She told investigators that she had taken a few sips of a drink Robicheaux bought her after meeting the couple while out with a roommate. She that she “blanked out,” waking up half-naked in Robicheaux’s dark bedroom.

When she was unable to rouse her roommate, she found the doctor and asked him what happened. The altercation turned physical, and she accused Robicheaux of hitting her before Riley stepped in and told him, “It’s going too far, it is not worth it.”

Neighbors called 911 after hearing the screams. Jane Doe initially told police she had not been sexually assaulted.

The second victim, Jane Doe 2, told police her she met Robicheaux and Riley at Nobu Newport Beach on Easter weekend in 2017, Jennifer Kearns, an investigator with the Orange County DA’s Office, testified.

She claimed she left with the pair to a local bar, where she ingested cocaine Riley offered her while they were in the bathroom. The next thing Jane Doe recalled was walking up the stairs of Robicheaux’s home, Kearns testified.

Jane Doe 2 told the investigator Robicheaux and Riley took her shirt off but she was able to lock herself into the bathroom.

Kearns said Jane Doe 2 recalled Riley pleading with her to unlock the bathroom door. Riley allegedly told the victim, “He makes me do this.”

Prosecutors also said police found cocaine, MDMA and GHB, known as a “date rape drug,” during a search of Robicheaux’s Newport Beach home. They also found two unregistered assault weapons.

Robicheaux and Riley’s defense attorneys argued that the good-looking couple were “swingers” and only had consensual sex with the women and did not drug them.

They also claimed that contradictions in Jane Doe 1’s numerous interviews with investigators over the years made her unreliable, and said there is no proof in the recollections by Jane Doe 2 that the couple had actually sexually assaulted her against her will, the Register reported.

“The evidence introduced at the preliminary hearing reflects that Robicheaux and Riley were in a ‘swinging’ relationship, used and shared drugs and alcohol, and sometimes invited other women to join them in sex. None of that makes them rapists,” the defense attorneys wrote in a recent brief to the judge.

“The government’s case rests on the unfounded assumption that anyone who engages in casual sex while drinking and using drugs also intends to rape anyone who elects to party with them but ultimately opts not to join them in a sexual encounter.”

The case made national headlines after Robicheaux, who appeared on a short-lived Bravo reality TV show “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male,” and Riley became subjects of a popular podcast called “O.C. Swingers.”

Robicheaux was dubbed “Orange County’s Most Eligible Bachelor” in 2013.

Former Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas first announced drugging and sexual assault charges against Robicheaux and Riley in 2018, however, the DA falsely claimed investigators had uncovered hundreds of pictures and videos showing women who were intoxicated and engaged in sexual acts.

After Rackauckas left office, current District Attorney Todd Spitzer accused his predecessor of mishandling the case. Spitzer dismissed the charges against Robicheaux and Riley in February 2020 due to lack of evidence and prosecutorial misconduct.

In August 2020, a judge said they were concerned the case had been “infected by politics” and ordered it be turned over to the California Attorney General’s Office.

Since then, two other alleged victims dropped out of the case, leaving just Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

Robicheaux and Riley’s arraignment for the other charges they are still facing has been set for July 19, the Register reported.