Orange County prosecutors Monday fired back at claims from defense attorneys representing a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend, who are charged with drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women, that digital evidence in the case does not implicate the couple.
Prosecutors say six investigators are plowing through a "portion of more than 214,000 video files, 3.5 million pictures, a million documents, and 137,000 emails" from the couple's computers. The data include 13,200 text messages, 27,600 images and 727 videos from the defendants' cell phones as well as 3,800 videos, 30,000 images and 48,000 documents from their iCloud accounts.
The investigators have only gotten through about 10 percent of the data since the evidence was released by a judge two days ago. Since attorneys have claimed doctor-patient and attorney-client privilege, a special master has had to go over the evidence first to keep that data private.
"Just to be clear, the OCDA has consistently said that between the two defendants, there are thousands of electronic images," a statement from the District Attorney's Office reads. "Today we are clarifying further and stating there are literally millions of images. The OCDA has never said all of the images are incriminating, sexual in nature, or show incapacitation or intoxication, however some of the data reviewed thus far does show women in various stages of undress and consciousness."
The District Attorney's Office also emphasized that the "case is not about the video evidence, it is about the seven women who bravely care forward to report their assaults. The search of the electronics is to see if there is additional evidence that the victims were further victimized by being filmed during the crimes, or if there are other victims who don't know they were victimized."
The statement also added that, "It is unfortunate the defense is trying to make false accusations against the prosecutors in order to take the spotlight off of their clients' actions."
A forensic expert hired by defense attorneys for Dr. Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend Cerissa Riley analyzed two hard drives provided by prosecutors.
According to the defense team, the expert's "conclusions are astounding, not in what the videos show, but in how they so drastically differ from what was publicly represented by the District Attorney's Office and by the media over the past six weeks."
The defendants' attorneys discounted reports of "thousands" of videos on the computers. They claim there are "absolutely no videos depicting Robicheaux or Riley engaging in sex acts with unconscious women."
They claim what videos were turned over to defense attorneys "reflect sexual encounters with of-age women, known to Robicheaux and Riley" that were "absolutely consensual." None of the videos included any of the alleged victims, they said.
The defense attorneys argued that prosecutors "deliberately tried" to avoid turning over the evidence "until after the election."
Robicheaux, 38, and Riely, 31, pleaded not guilty Oct. 17.
Robicheaux is charged in connection with seven victims while Riley is charged with five of the alleged victims.
Prosecutors say there are a few other women who have alleged they were victimized outside of Orange County, and, although the pair is not charged in connection with those claims, their allegations would be used in the prosecution to establish a pattern of abuse.
Prosecutors have contended that the two would take advantage of their good looks to meet women in restaurants or bars, then drug them and lure them back to Robicheaux's apartment, where they were sexually assaulted. Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in September that investigators discovered more than 1,000 cell phone videos of alleged assaults.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
