Newport Beach Surgeon Accused of Drugging Women Faces Diminished Charges

Prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office have ten days to refile charges against a Newport Beach physician and his girlfriend who are accused of drugging women.

Felony counts of poisoning and phencyclidine sales against Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 43, were dismissed on Aug. 28 by Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen.

“It’s a messy case and it seems to me that what the judge is doing is he wants a clean case,” said Tracy Pearson, a Los Angeles-based legal expert who is not a party to the case. “They have to present it to a jury at some point, and they want to streamline it so that jurors can understand what happened because jurors are just average people who show up for jury duty.”

Dr. Robicheaux Faces Charges of Possession of Psilocybin, Ecstasy, Cocaine and GHB

Leversen dismissed charges against Riley but Robicheaux, a hand surgeon, still faces four misdemeanor charges of possession of controlled substances and two counts of possession of an assault weapon.

The controlled substances include psilocybin, ecstasy, cocaine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (“GHB”), which is used to treat narcolepsy.

“It does not surprise me that there are these allegations against a hand surgeon,” Pearson told OrangeCountyLawyers.com. “Anyone can develop the ability to make bad decisions. Just because you happen to occupy a certain profession doesn’t mean you stop being a human being with good or bad judgment. Some of these professional people have access to things like drugs and money.”

Robicheaux once appeared on a television show called Online Dating Rituals of the American Male on the Bravo network.

Seven victims allege that he and his 36-year-old girlfriend Cerissa Riley dosed them with drugs, took them to their tony Newport Beach home and sexually assaulted them, according to media reports.

“Depending on what professionals have access to, it might provide you with the means to make bad judgment based on how your mind works,” Pearson said in an interview. “You have these bad decisions that you might make based on opportunity, inhibitions and the inability to clamp down on your ego.”

The case was transferred to the California Attorney General’s office after Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer accused his political forerunner Tony Rackauckas of mishandling the case.

“There may have been a perceived conflict of interest or perceived questionable judgment and so there was a request that it be taken over by someone else outside of the local community to avoid the appearance of a conflict and so that there would not be a continuity problem,” Pearson added.

In a 2019 letter to the state attorney general’s office, Spitzer declared a conflict of interest regarding the ability of his office to continue handling the prosecution based on misconduct by Rackauckas and alleged violations of the California Rules of Professional Conduct.

“The above listed case was the subject of a major campaign dispute between me and the former incumbent,” Spitzer stated in the letter. “I had initially believed that my office could move past these issues and provide a fair trial to the victims and defendants in this case after I received a full case briefing immediately upon my assuming office. However, I’m now aware of statements made under oath by former district attorney and his chief of staff Susan Schroeder during depositions in connection with the case. Based on recent revelations of misconduct and exploitive pretrial publicity…that is no longer the case.”