Charges against Justin Roiland of ‘Rick and Morty’ dropped

Prosecutors have dropped the domestic violence charges filed against “Rick and Morty” co-creator Justin Roiland in May 2020, authorities announced on Tuesday.

“We dismissed the charges because of insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office, told the Times over the phone.

Edds cited “additional information that has come to light” as a factor, but declined to comment further.

The writer-producer shared his thoughts on the dropped charges with a one-word tweet – “Justice” – and a screenshot of a statement in which he called the allegations false.

“I’m grateful that this case was dismissed, but at the same time I’m still deeply shocked by the horrible lies that were told about me during this trial.” Rolland wrote. “Most of all, I’m disappointed that so many people were so quick to judge without knowing the facts, based solely on the words of a bitter ex who was trying to evade due process and have me ‘quit’.”

He added that he is now shifting to his “creative projects and the recovery” of his name.

Roiland faced one charge of assault and one charge of false imprisonment through threats, violence, fraud and deception. He pleaded not guilty to both crimes in October 2020, court records showed.

The charges against Roiland stemmed from an alleged incident on or about January 19, 2020 in Anaheim. It was an unnamed Jane Doe who was dating Roiland at the time, according to the complaint received by The Times.

When news of the charges against Roiland broke earlier this year, with the release of an NBC report on January 12, media outlets began cutting ties with him.

The first to end their relationship was Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network’s adult audience counterpart, which aired six seasons of the Emmy-winning “Rick and Morty.” Roiland co-developed the show with Dan Harmon and voiced the title characters, mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his grandson Morty Smith.

The show was renewed through Season 10 as part of Adult Swim’s 70-episode taping in 2018.

A day later, Hulu also stopped working with Roiland. He was associated with two animated series on Hulu, in which he co-created and starred in “Solar Opposites.” and executive producer of “Koala Man,” which he also guest-starred as voice artist. Both shows continued without Roiland’s involvement.

Around the same time, video game studio Squanch Games, which had developed Roiland’s game High on Life, announced Roiland resigned from the company.

Throughout the trial, Roiland had maintained his innocence, commenting through his attorneys in a statement to The Times that he expected “this matter to be dismissed once prosecutors have completed their methodical review of the evidence.”