Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland charged with domestic violence

The spotlight is on Justin Roiland, but not in a positive light for this co-creator and star of the adult animated comedy series “Rick and Morty”, he currently has to deal with a felony domestic violence charge in Orange County, California. In May 2020 there was a criminal complaint filed by the Orange County District Attorney regarding a 2020 incident with the woman he was dating at the time.

According to prosecutors, in the criminal complaint filed, the charges against Roiland are fraud, violence or deceit, false imprisonment by menace, and corporal injury against the woman he was dating and living with at the time. The woman is referred to as ‘Jane Doe’ in court documents and doesn’t want to be identified. He, however, has pleaded not guilty to all the allegations brought against him.

The media was unaware of Roiland’s charges until it was reported by NBC News. The incident transpired in January 2020 and he was then charged in May of the same year. 

In August 2020 Roiland was arrested but released again on a $50,000 bond. Roiland had to return to court in October of that year and during that time a protective order was put in place and will remain as such until October 2023. The protective order stipulates that he may not surveil, threaten, or harass the person named in the order nor come within 100 feet of the person. Part of the order was that Roiland had to turn in all and any firearms he possessed or owned.

On Thursday Roiland attended a court hearing in which his lawyer informed the judge that his client has a pending plea deal but no further details were provided. There will be another hearing on 27 April.

“It is hard to overstate how inaccurate the recent media coverage of this situation has been,” stated Edward Welbourn, Mr Roiland’s attorney, in a statement.

“To be clear, not only is Justin innocent but we also have every expectation that this matter is on course to be dismissed once the District Attorney’s office has completed its methodical review of the evidence. We look forward to clearing Justin’s name and helping him move forward as swiftly as possible.”

As the world continued to go on about their business without the knowledge of the charges against Roiland, so too did he continue living his life. In 2022, he released a new video game “High on Life.” The player becomes a bounty hunter in the game who commences on numerous missions to eliminate various targets in progressively eccentric worlds.

What makes this game so interesting is that the four available guns have faces that face the player and react and talk with quirky lines while playing. Kind of makes me wonder what has been going through his mind deciding to try out the game world and the thought process of a game like this…