California prosecutors said they received “well over 50 calls” in three days about a couple accused of serial date rapes and have established at least a dozen “credible leads to potential victims.”
In a press conference Friday, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office is now investigating allegations that stretch back two decades, and the probe has expanded to several other states.
Earlier this week, Rackauckas’ office announced charges against Dr. Grant Robicheaux, an orthopedic surgeon who appeared on the Bravo reality series The Online Dating Rituals of the American Male, and girlfriend Cerissa Riley, a dance instructor, substitute teacher, and former Evangelical missionary.
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Prosecutors claim the couple used their “good looks” to lure women back to their apartment, drug them, and rape them. There could be “many” unidentified victims, they said.
In a joint statement from their lawyers, both Robicheaux and Riley have denied any charges of nonconsensual sexual behavior.
Authorities confiscated Robicheaux’s phone and found “thousands” of photos and videos, some of which included women who may have been intoxicated beyond the point of consent, they said
The DA said Friday that the cellphone footage had not yet helped prosecutors estimate a total number of victims because there was simply too much to sort through. “We have terabytes of digital evidence,” Rackauckas said. “Videos and pictures and all kinds of things.”
If convicted, Robicheaux and Riley could get decades in prison for the charges they currently face, which stem from two alleged incidents of sexual assault in 2016.
In April 2016, a woman identified as only Jane Doe 1 reported to Newport Beach Police Department that she met the couple at bar and accompanied them to a party. Later that night, after Doe 1 had become too intoxicated to give consent, she alleged, the couple took her back to their apartment and raped her. A series of medical tests performed on the alleged victim the day after the incident found traces of several controlled substances.
Later that year, in October, a woman claimed she woke up in Robicheaux and Riley’s apartment as they were sexually assaulting her, with intentions to rape her. Her screams alerted a neighbor, who called the authorities.
In January of this year, Newport Beach police acquired a search warrant and raided Robicheaux and Riley’s residence, where they found illegal drugs, unregistered firearms, and high capacity magazines. That’s when the DA’s office got involved, working over the next nine months to gather evidence against the pair.
Rackauckas encouraged women to come forward with any information related to the case. “Even if you made the conscious decision to party with this couple, or with anybody else for that matter,” he said, “no one gets a pass to have their way with you once you’re unconscious or passed the point of consent.”
The couple often “targeted their prey” in restaurants or bars, but Robicheaux–who was named Orange County’s 2013 “Most Eligible Bachelor”–also may have used dating apps like Tinder or Bumble, Rackauckas said. “Please be careful,” he warned the public. “You don’t know what’s behind what appears to be a perfect smile.”
