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CALIFORNIA PROSECUTORS HAVE dropped domestic violence charges against Justin Roiland, who created the animated series Rick And Morty and provided the voices of the show’s two title characters.
Orange County district attorney’s spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said the two felony counts involving a former girlfriend were dropped “due to a lack of sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Roiland responded to the development on Twitter, saying: “I have always known that these claims were false — and I never had any doubt that this day would come.
“I’m thankful that this case has been dismissed but, at the same time, I’m still deeply shaken by the horrible lies that were reported about me during this process.”
He added that he is “disappointed that so many people were so quick to judge without knowing the facts, based solely on the word of a bitter ex trying to bypass due process and have me ‘cancelled’.”
Roiland, 43, had been awaiting trial on charges of corporal injury and false imprisonment by menace, fraud, violence or deceit against the woman, who he was living with at the time. She was not identified in court documents.
The charges dated to May 2020 but they apparently went unnoticed by media outlets until NBC News reported on them in January this year.
Roiland and Dan Harmon created the animated sci-fi sitcom about a mad scientist and his grandson, both voiced by Roiland.
It has aired for six seasons on Cartoon Network as part of its Adult Swim night-time programming block, and it has been renewed for a seventh.
Adult Swim and Cartoon Network cut ties with him when the charges were reported and said his roles would be recast. 20th TV Animation and Hulu Originals, which produce two other animated series Roiland worked on, did the same.
The companies declined to comment yesterday.
In his tweet, Roiland said he is “determined to move forward and focus both on my creative projects and restoring my good name”.
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We hear lots about allegations, very little about what happens when the allegations are deemed to be false. Good to see a story about that
@Rob Hunt: agreed that is the case yet equally false claims are just as prolific.
@Rob Hunt: And lifetime of whispers about no smoke without fire, or people saying, just because there wasn’t sufficient evidence doesn’t mean it’s not true…
This is what motivates the people that make false accusations, to either inflict suffering for revenge or to extort money in exchange for not making their false claims, because they can do so without suffering any consequences themselves, in practice even questioning the validity or their claims is now considered wrong, blatent and obvious inconsistencies are not questioned or are attributed to PTSD, trauma, etc, effectively giving them a free pass.
There has to be a middle ground between protecting genuine victims of domestic violence and preventing false accusations being made without consequences.
@Allora: False allegations are absolutely not just as prolific.
@David Van-Standen: Totally agree. There needs to be some sort of safeguard against these toxic people, psych evaluations to rule out issues like Histrionic Personality Disorder before they make it to court in the first place and waste peoples time. Glad he got a fair trial and has been cleared, that’s why we have a justice system, and I wish him the best of luck with his future projects which I’ll be following!
@Melanie Keane: There wasn’t a trial. It never made it to trial.
@Melanie Keane: just because someone can’t pass a psych evaluation does that automatically invalidate an allegation? Can someone with a personality disorder not be a victim of abuse?
@Disco Inferno: WOW, who reported Rob’s comment? This is getting ridiculous.
@A$AP ETH: Of course, any person can be a victim of abuse, but a standard of proof needs to be met as in other crimes, not just guilt by accusation.
The argument is made that questioning alleged victims and crosschecking their evidence is placing futher trauma on genuine victims and there is some truth in that, however any accusation of this serious nature needs detailed investigation, because the accused person also deserves the full protection of the law, in other words, innocent until proven guilty.
@David Van-Standen: People who suffer from certain personality disorders develop them as a result of childhood trauma such as child abuse. Child abuse can make a person more vulnerable to being abused as an adult so using it the diagnosis to put a potential question mark on a victim’s accusation would do an awful lot of damage and stop victims coming forward.
@A$AP ETH: No, but its a significant factor when making an allegation against another person, especially if the overriding nature of that disorder is to seek attention, even negative attention. That person’s state of mind is crucial in the absence of substantial evidence.
@David Van-Standen: i agree with you that these matters need thorough investigation. But that detailed investigation does happen, in this country at least. The amount of reports vs what actually gets to court, is miniscule. There is a very high threshold for moving something forward to a trial. Your post makes it sound like that is not happening, or at least not happening to thorough enough a degree, to protect the alleged victim. Bringing things such as mandatory psychiatric evaluations for alleged victims is only going to make a vulnerable person more vulnerable, and provide very little to the material evidence of the case.
@Melanie Keane: it doesn’t override actual evidence. What you are proposing would make already vulnerable people even more vulnerable to abuse, if it is something defence lawyers could easily refer to to get a case thrown out if it was a requirement to get the case to trial, regardless if there was enough actual evidence to prosecute.
@Tricia G: I can understand why, I cast doubt on his innocence which is probably actionable. His charges were dropped, unless that decision is reversed he’s legally innocent.
Seperately, there are far too many people ready to believe that if an accusation doesn’t make it to trial because of a lack of evidence it means that the accuser is a liar and must be arrested themselves. That’s not how any crimes work – it’s either proven beyond reasonable doubt or it isn’t. Now, if an accusation is PROVEN to be false that’s a different story, but I don’t believe this is the case. I used to be a big fan of Roiland’s but there are an awful lot of accusations of creepy behaviour out there, unrelated to this case.
@FrustratedASDMum: You can read my comment again, as I just did. Because you are arguing against a point or statement that I simply didn’t make.
The past or social station of either alleged victims or alleged perpetrators should have no bearing on any accusation or how they are dealt with, the evidence is all that matters.
Also, the publication of accusations means someone falsely accused is tried and convicted in the court of public opinion and social media long before any investigation and regardless of the final outcome and the damage is done.
@A$AP ETH: I agree it doesn’t override evidence, but in this case there was none, only her word to go on which, in my opinion, is not enough to paint someone as a criminal.
@FrustratedASDMum: Very valid point, however those kinds of factors are also common denominators for psychopaths. Nothing is black and white when it comes to things like this but we have to protect people as best we can, genuine victims of both abuse and false accusations. Its not an easy thing to navigate but in this case I believe it was the right outcome.
Let him come back to his job then, the show won’t be the same without him
@Gavin Gray: this isn’t the only thing dogging him. Can’t see him back on rick and morty anytime soon.
@Gavin Gray: The only thing he does is the voices. He’s not been involved in the writing for years.
As long as they can accurately mimic the voices, they don’t need him.
@Tricia G: As an interesting and unrelated aside, human voice acting is very likely to soon be a thing of the past, A.I. will replace them all, to be closely followed by both big and small screen actors and the entire industry…
I get the impression this won’t be enough to get him “unfired” though.
Too many other things going on in the past. He is not well liked….. and then there was that time he admitted to sexually harassing a writer on Community.
Plus he does make some pretty AWFUL jokes about underage girls.
While you are all celebrating in glee that his good name has been restored, there are literally screenshots on twitter of this gentleman (allegedly) DMing underage girls, calling them jailbait, suggesting a 17yr old should do webcam stuff etc.
@Faux Faux: the weirdo libertarians who make up a chunk of his fanbase don’t really consider statutory r*** to be an issue.
have your say