Animated show Rick and Morty co-creator and Squanch Games founder Justin Roiland is facing domestic assault charges in Orange County, California, with further troubling allegations against him emerging on social media as this case was made public.
Details of the case emerged on Thursday via NBC News, who reported on a pre-trial hearing that was held on Thursday. The charges against Roiland stem from an incident that took place in January 2020, accusing him of domestic battery with corporal injury and false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit against an unidentified woman who was in a relationship and living with him at the time.
Felony criminal charges were filed against him in May 2020, and he was subsequently arrested and released on bail in August 2020. Roiland pled not guilty when he was arraigned in October 2020, with the victim getting a restraining order against him at that time.
In response, Roiland’s attorney Edward Welbourn issued a statement to say, “It is hard to overstate how inaccurate the recent media coverage of this situation has been.
“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.”
Roiland has been offered a plea deal, the details of which have not been released, with the hearing to reconvene on 27th April.
Following the criminal proceedings being made public, a number of women have taken to social media – here are three examples via The Mary Sue – to make further allegations against Roiland, some accusing him of grooming them via social media and chat while they were underage, backing themselves up with screenshots of text chats and DMs. This, of course, is being posted outside a court of law and legal scrutiny, and generally coming years after the fact, but that is often the case as victims need time to process and have to choose to speak out about historical assault, abuse and predatory behaviour.
Roiland has achieved much of his fame through the Rick and Morty animated series which debuted in 2013. The show has sometimes courted controversy for its humour – the most recent series uses incest as a recurring theme – while there has also been a great deal of toxicity in the community that quickly grew around the show, flaring up in 2018 when a bit about McDonalds Szechuan sauce saw the fast food chain bring the sauce back, but not in enough quantities to satisfy angry queues and crowds that sprung up.
This all pertains to video games because of Squanch Games, which was founded in 2016. The studio has produced a number of games with Roiland’s writing and humour front and centre, including Accounting, Trover Saves the Universe, and High on Life, which was a major success at the end of last year and was the biggest Xbox Game Pass launch of 2022.
That success would have seen major companies clamouring for fresh partnerships on future titles, but it’s possible that Roiland’s tarnished public image could dampen enthusiasm to work with his company in future.
