Squanch Video games co-founder and CEO Justin Roiland is going through a pair of felony costs with reference to a January 2020 incident with a associate he was courting, NBC News has reported.
Roiland has been charged with felony home battery with corporal damage and false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, and/or deceit. He pleaded not responsible to each costs in 2020, and the Rick and Morty co-creator’s lawyer instructed NBC he expects the case shall be dismissed.
Whereas the fees have been first introduced in opposition to Roiland in Might of 2020 and the case has had greater than a dozen courtroom hearings up to now, NBC’s report this week was the primary main media protection they’ve acquired.
The associate within the incident in query has a protecting order in opposition to Roiland that lasts till October of this yr.
Roiland has an assortment of credit in video games however stays greatest recognized for his work in animation (Rick and Morty debuted in 2013 and continues to air new seasons). Nevertheless, Roiland expanded his presence within the video games trade by co-founding Squanch Video games in 2016.
He served as chief artistic officer on the studio till 2021, when he moved into the CEO place with the departure of his fellow co-founder and predecessor as CEO Tanya Watson.
Within the wake of the NBC report, Kotaku has additionally revealed phrase of a beforehand unreported lawsuit in opposition to Squanch Video games from 2018 by which a former designer on the studio alleged she was sexual harassed at work, after which fired in retaliation when she complained about it.
That case was settled in September of 2019.