An investigator with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has reached a $2.75 million settlement with the county of Orange for a whistleblower lawsuit in which she accused District Attorney Todd Spitzer of colluding with defense attorneys in order to sabotage a controversial and politically charged rape case against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend.
The settlement is the latest fallout from the high-profile prosecution of Dr. Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley, a case that initially drew international headlines, before turning into a years-long courtroom battle pitting prosecutors against some of the accusers that ultimately fell apart as all the sex charges against the couple were either dropped or dismissed.
Jennifer Kearns, who led the investigation into Robicheaux and Riley under previous DA Tony Rackauckaus, filed her lawsuit against current DA Todd Spitzer in 2021, when the case against the couple was still active. The lawsuit accused Spitzer of colluding with the couple’s attorneys in order to “undermine the prosecution, discredit the victims and ultimately destroy the criminal case against the criminal defendants.”
“While no settlement can fully erase the pain Jennifer and her family have endured, this outcome is a measure of vindication for a woman who, even at her lowest, never stopped believing in justice — or in the victims she had dedicated her life to protecting,” said Kearn’s attorney, Bijan Darvish.
Darvish alleged that in “branding Jennifer a liar and accusing her of misconduct,” leaders in the district attorney’s office were sending the message that “if you go against Todd Spitzer, this is what will happen. You will be shamed and punished…
“When Jennifer Kearns stood up for sexual assault victims and refused to stay silent about what she witnessed, Todd Spitzer made her the scapegoat,” Darvish said. “What was done to Jennifer was a deliberate abuse of authority — a coordinated effort to discredit, isolate, and ultimately break a career built on decades of integrity, simply because she refused to look the other way.”
DA Spokeswoman Kimberly Edds described the prosecution of Robicheaux and Riley as “an election ruse” meant to generate publicity for Rackauckas’ 2018 campaign that was “absolutely and patently false.” Information provided to Rackauckas by Kearns, as well as the original prosecutor on the case, led the former DA to falsely claim during a press conference that there were thousands of potential victims, Edds added.
“After five years of protracted litigation to correct Rackauckas’ unethical pursuit of the sex charges, what the Spitzer administration said from the very beginning was absolutely true – the sex charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt against Robicheaux and Riley,” Edds said.
Members of the Orange County Board of Supervisor’s were informed Tuesday that Kearns had accepted the settlement and agreed to resign from the OC DA’s office once she receives the payout. The settlement number was previously approved on a 3-2 vote by the supervisors during a closed session on March 10, with Supervisors Doug Chafee and Janet Nguyen voting against it, according to county records.
Kearns, a veteran sex crimes investigator with the Long Beach Police Department before joining the OC DA’s office, took over the investigation into the Robicheaux and Riley after several of the accusers reached out to the Newport Beach Police Department.
In September 2018, then-DA Rackauckas described Robicheaux — an orthopedic hand surgeon who appeared on the Bravo television show “Online Dating Rituals of the American Male” — and Riley as serial predators and rapists who picked young women up at Newport Beach night spots, drugged them and then sexually assaulted them at Robicheaux’s Balboa Peninsula home.
The couple strenuously denied the charges, with their attorneys contending they were swingers who took part in consensual sexual encounters and drug use, not sexual predators.
After unseating Rackauckas, Spitzer reversed course, announcing that a review of the case turned up no evidence of sexual assault and apologizing to the couple.
Spitzer criticized Kearns for her role in the investigation, alleging that she used “overtly suggestive interview techniques” with the accusers and engaged in a “whisper campaign” with previous higher-ups at the DA’s office in order to exaggerate the alleged evidence against Robicheaux and Riley.
Spitzer’s efforts to dismiss the case were heatedly opposed by many of the accusers. And Kearns, in her lawsuit, alleged that Spitzer had taken seasoned prosecutors off the case and assigned it to less-experienced attorneys prior to seeking a dismissal. The lawsuit also accused Spitzer of “openly expressing contempt” for the accusers.
A judge rejected Spitzer’s attempt to dismiss the case, arguing it had been “infected” by politics and should have gone before a jury rather than be dropped as part of a “back-room dismissal.” The judge took the rare step of removing local prosecutors from the case and transferring it to the California Attorney General’s Office.
As the court process dragged on, the number of accusers tied to the case began to drop.
Some asked out, telling state prosecutors they had been “grossly mistreated” and “dragged through the mud.” The prosecutors decided against moving forward with charges tied to some of the other accusers, determining there wasn’t enough evidence to prove to a jury they had been sexually assaulted.
State prosecutors decided to focus on two accusers out of seven who previously had been tied to the allegations.
Another judge gutted what was left of the case after a preliminary hearing, finding there wasn’t enough evidence to support any of the remaining sexual-assault-related charges. What had been a multiple-sexual assault case turned into a drug and gun case.
The remaining charges against Riley — poisoning and providing drugs to a woman — were dismissed, leaving her exonerated.
Robicheaux agreed to plead guilty to possessing an assault rifle and psychedelic mushrooms that were found during a police search of his home and was sentenced to probation. It was a far cry from the charges that years earlier had drawn international attention.