The animated adult comedy show 'Rick and Morty' has been a huge hit for the Cartoon Network's 'Adult Swim' programming block at night and has become a cultural touchstone, too, as seen by an oversized float of one of the cartoon characters in St. Louis in 2019. Voice actor and series co-creator Justin Roiland is now facing several felony charges stemming from a 2020 incident. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI |
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Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Voice actor Justin Roiland, who is credited with co-creating the popular adult animated show Rick and Morty, was in a California court Thursday to face allegations of assaulting and falsely imprisoning an ex-girlfriend in 2020.
The 42-year-old faces two felony counts related to an incident that occurred with a woman he was dating in January 2020. He is charged with one count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit, according to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC News.
The complaint was filed by the Orange County District Attorney's Office in May 2020. Roiland pleaded "not guilty" to both charges later that year. His pre-trial hearing was held in Orange County on Thursday.
Roiland was released on a $50,000 bond in August 2020. Many of the case's records, including an affidavit for Roiland's arrest, are sealed.
Roiland and his attorney's have not publicly responded to the allegations against him.
Roiland voices several characters on the popular show Rick and Morty including the titular characters. He has since launched the show Solar Opposites for Hulu, along with the recently released Koala Man. In December, the video game High on Life, which Roiland developed, released on XBox and PC and quickly became one of the most-played games on Microsoft's console.
This is not the first controversy to face the creators behind Rick and Morty. In 2018, fellow co-creator Dan Harmon, who was the showrunner on Community, deleted his Twitter account after a controversial 2009 comedy sketch he produced began to recirculate online.
"In 2009, I made a 'pilot' which strove to parody the series Dexter and only succeeded in offending," Harmon said.
"I quickly realized the content was way too distasteful and took the video down immediately. Nobody should ever have to see what you saw and for that, I sincerely apologize."
