Sexual assault allegations made against ‘Rick and Morty’ co-creator Justin Roilund
A new report has been published detailing sexual assault claims by multiple women against Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roilund.
Earlier this year, domestic abuse charges against Roilund were dropped by the Orange County district attorney. The DA’s spokeswoman, Kimberly Edds, detailed that the two felony counts involving Roiland’s former girlfriend were dropped “as a result of having insufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt”.
The initial charges had been dated as far back as May 2020, but they were allegedly kept from the media until NBC reported on the case in January 2023.
Now, a new report has been published by NBC containing testimonies from 11 women, three of whom claim to have been first contacted by the comedy writer when they were 16. According to the report, ppon discovering their age, he tended to stop communicating with the girls before re-contacting them at a later date.
One woman who participated in the project claims they met on Tinder, and later went to a restaurant where she claims to have drunk alcoholic beverages despite being under the age of 21. Later, when they arrived at his hotel room, Roilund asked her to perform oral sex on him, and after she refused, he allegedly pushed her head towards his genital area.
“From the moment it happened, I knew that it was not okay,” the anonymous woman told NBC. ‘But I felt a lot of different feelings, like that it was my fault. I felt guilty for asking him to buy me stuff. I felt maybe I owed it to him. And I was embarrassed.’
In messages obtained by the news publication, Roilund was later allegedly questioned over the incident by the women who said “consent is important” which led to him apologising, and reportedly stating that he “didn’t get consent”.
Another woman who spoke to NBC claims she was first contacted by Roilund when she was 19 years old and he was aged 36 in 2016. The Rick and Morty co-creator began by complementing her artwork, and the following year, he paid for her to visit Los Angeles from Pennsylvania.
Although her father was worried about Roilund’s intentions, the writer stated in messages obtained by NBC that he would “make absolutely 100% sure nothing bad would happen”. While she was in LA, she reportedly attended a party celebrating the third series of his comedy series, and drank alcohol in a hot tub with a female friend.
The anonymous woman’s memory of the whole evening isn’t clear, but she recalled Roilund asking the two women to perform sexual acts on each other, and having sex with him while the other woman was in the room. She claimed to have later discussed the incident with a friend on the phone, stating she felt more “incapacitated than usual”.
At this stage, Roilund is yet to speak publicly about the new allegations. However, his lawyer, Andrew Brettler, has described the claims as “false and defamatory”.
This is a developing story.
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