As many as six more women have come forward alleging they were victims of a prominent California surgeon and his girlfriend, whom prosecutors have charged with sexually assaulting two women, according to multiple news reports.
TheLos Angeles TimesandUSA Todayreport that six women reported themselves as possible victims of Dr. Grant Robicheaux and his girlfriend, Cerissa Riley, both of Orange County.
Accordingto CBS News, authorities have learned of three additional possible victims.
“We are very encouraged that the victims would feel confident in the legal system and come forward,” Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, toldUSAToday.
A spokeswoman told CBS that authorities have received many tips since the allegations against Robicheaux and Riley were made public on Tuesday. The couple — him a notable Newport Beach doctor; her a substitute teacher — allegedly used their looks, status and wiles to lure two women into sexual assaults, according to authorities.
One woman was drugged after becoming intoxicated at a party with Robicheaux, 38, and Riley, 31, and then returning to Robicheaux’s apartment, where she was raped and abused, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutor Tony Rackauckas reportedly compared them to “a wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothing.”
An alleged victim used another description, according to theL.A. Times, likening Robicheaux and Riley to a “Bonnie and Clyde” pair of criminals.
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“A wolf can wear scrubs or doctor’s clothing,” Rackauckas said, theL.A. Timesreports. “Or the wolf can be a beautiful woman.”
Riley faces those same counts, with the exception of the weapons crime.
Both suspects are reportedly free on $100,000 bail. They have not returned PEOPLE’s calls for comment.
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They have not yet entered pleas but their attorneys have “unequivocally denied” the accusations of rape, saying in a statement to PEOPLE, in part: “They have been aware of these accusations for a number of months, and each of them will formally deny the truth of these allegations at their first opportunity in court.”
At a Tuesday news conference, Rackauckas said investigators found on Robicheaux’s phone videos of sex acts with other women “where the women in the videos appear highly intoxicated beyond the ability to consent or resist and they’re barely responsive to the defendants’ sexual advances.”
In an interview with theL.A. Times, Rackauckas said there were a “substantial number of videos. I cannot tell you if it is tens or hundreds, it is certainly more than tens.”
Rackauckas told reporters on Tuesday, “We don’t know if [the suspects] videoed all of their sex acts but many are on the videos that we have not yet identified.”
He added, “We don’t know how many victims there might be out there, but we ask you to come forward.”
In a statement on Wednesday, attorneys Scott Borthwick and Philip Cohen, who are representing Robicheaux and Riley insisted on their innocence and noted that the sexual assault case is not related to Robicheaux’s professional work.
A spokeswoman for Borthwick and Cohen said they would not be giving interviews until after Robicheaux and Riley were arraigned.
She did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the additional alleged victims.
“Dr. Robicheaux and Ms. Riley believe that [the assault] allegations do a disservice to, and dangerously undermine, the true victims of sexual assault,” Borthwick and Cohen said in their statement, “and they are eager to have the proper spotlight shed on this case in a public trial.”
• With ROBYN MERRETT
source: people.com
