DNY59/iStock(LOS ANGELES) — A surgeon and his girlfriend accused in 2018 of kidnapping, drugging and raping several women are expected to be exonerated on Friday by a prosecutor in California who’s accused his predecessor of using their case as a political cudgel.Grant Robicheaux, 39, and Cerissa Riley, 32, told ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth, in an exclusive interview airing Friday on Good Morning America, they finally were beginning to feel relieved as their ordeal started to wind down.”Doing a lot better now,” Riley said. “I feel like I finally woke up from a bad nightmare, and feel like I can breathe again.”Robicheaux and Riley had been accused of using dating apps to target women and sexually assaulting them after they were unconscious or incapacitated. Each pleaded not guilty to 17 counts connected to multiple victims.Robicheaux said he never felt like the couple crossed the line.”Never, never, never. Not even close,” he said. “Consenting adults that were having a great time.”He added, “An unconscious woman is not very fun to have a party with.”Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer is seeking to dismiss all charges against the pair after saying that “not a single piece of evidence or video or photo that shows an unconscious or incapacitated woman being sexually assaulted.”Prosecutors, led at the time by Tony Rackauckas, initially said there were more than 1,000 videos to support the charges. Spitzer, elected in November 2018, later said: “I didn’t create this situation, but it’s my responsibility to fix it.””What happened to their lives and how this case materialized,” Spitzer said at a press conference on Tuesday, “is nothing short of a travesty.”Robicheaux, who appeared on the Bravo TV reality show Online Dating Rituals of the American Male, lost his medical license after the accusations became public. He may be considering legal action.”That’s why we’re here today. I don’t want this to happen to anybody else. It can’t,” he told Whitworth.Spitzer vowing to toss the charges against Riley and him “restored a little bit of faith in a system that I felt was completely failed, and had failed me,” Robicheaux added. “This day and age, so few people actually do what they say they’re going to do and stand up for the things they say they believe in. … It’s rare that people do the hard thing and do the right thing.” Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
