Justin Roiland used his ‘Rick and Morty’ fame to pursue young fans, text messages show
Justin Roiland used his ‘Rick and Morty’ fame to pursue young fans, text messages show
Roiland’s former fans and dates described disturbing interactions with the animator, with many playing out over texts. One woman said the ‘Rick and Morty’ creator sexually assaulted her, another said she was left ‘traumatized.’ (Warning: This article contains explicit language.)
In the years following the 2013 debut of Adult Swim’s cartoon phenomenon “Rick and Morty,” its star and co-creator Justin Roiland became a titan of the animation and video game industry and a rock star of youth counterculture. His artistic style and caricatures became ubiquitous in cannabis culture, and his career expanded into producing other animated series, creating NFTs and leading a virtual reality gaming studio. In 2017, a “Rick and Morty” collaboration with McDonald’s led to such a viral frenzy that police had to be called to at least two locations.
But as he partied with Los Angeles’ superstars and traveled the country for conventions, he also found he could use his fame to strike up conversations and develop relationships with young fans, including some who were underage. This is according to interviews with 11 women and nonbinary people who shared thousands of messages with Roiland from 2013 to 2022 — with nine of the people saying he turned the exchanges sexual. Of those nine people, three said they were 16 when they started talking to Roiland. To corroborate their stories, the 11 women and nonbinary people also shared pictures, videos, social media posts, emails, and plane ticket and Uber receipts with NBC News.
Warning: Lengthy and graphic details
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Have fun in prison, creep
What is the crime?
Well, the worst crime alleged in the article is rape.
Such allegations should be made to the police/prosecutor.
This is just PR.
Oftentimes police do nothing when people report sexual assault and rape. Bringing these things to public attention can sometimes be the only way to bring awareness to what happened. You can decide to not believe the alleged victims but there's nothing wrong with them coming out with allegations.
Statutory rape at best, and pedophilia/rape or SA at worst.
He lives in California. You're citing wiki articles about age of consent laws in other states when the only states law that matters is where he resides and where the assaults allegedly took place. Allegations seem to mostly or all take place in California. Showing the age of consent and statutory rape laws of Ohio mean nothing in CA.
In CA, age of consent is 18. Some of the women and people were 16. So he is a pedophile.
In CA, age of consent is 18. Some of the women and people were 16. So he is a pedophile.
According to my reading of the article, he would wait to meet said women until they were 18, and I don't know enough about the law to know if sending sexually charged texts to 16-year-olds counts as a crime in CA. I don't suspect it does.
Why suspect anything when you could just iunno LOOK IT UP?!
"As noted, sexting with a minor is illegal even between two minors, regardless of whether they gave consent. Under Penal Code 288.2 PC, it's a crime to send, distribute, or offer, using electronic communication, harmful matter to a minor with the intent to sexually gratify, seduce, or arouse."
You know IANAL but that sure as fuck sounds like it's illegal to me
all around impropriety, [n]o doubt it.
but yeah, legally this appears to be rather flimsy, although i thought there were new laws on books for grooming. not sure how they operate tho.
Well then why victims ain't going to the police?
Do you say that about all rape victims that don't report their rape? Are we victim blaming now?
Not victim blaming. If someone went on a date again and asked for money, then I find it a little hard to believe that they were a victim at all.
If you think people never end up staying with the person who raped them, you know nothing about this entire subject.
It's not airtight proof, but if it happens on the first date and they come back for more several times, that would push me a bit towards 'reasonable doubt'.
If it about someone who has been married 15 years and has 3 kids with the guy it is a very different situation.
Again, you don't understand rape if that's what you think.
only the ones that asked for a trial by the public instead of using proper legal process
"She's lying because she let everyone know about it" is a weird way to victim-blame.
Rape victims don't go to the police for a variety of reasons, even if they tell everyone about their rape. Maybe you trust the police, but many people don't.
You keep saying victim blame... nobody has done that in this posts.
You are being disingenuous while attempting derail any discussion.
You absolutely did. You suggested she was lying because she didn't go to the police. That is textbook victim blaming.
STFU
I didn’t realize he got off on the DV charges.
There are many reasons sexual assault victims don’t come forward. It’s not exactly easy to face the person that raped you in court. Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t matter in the court of public opinion. There’s been enough smoke around this guy for me to write him off without a conviction.
Any number of reasons. Trials of a public figure will forever brand you as "that person who was raped by X". Not to mention the incredible imbalance in legal resources of a regular person vs Justin Roiland.
Trial by social media is far easier. And he doesn’t get a to mount a defence. It’s like the shortcut for those in the know.
No doubt there is some impropriety here.
But the brain dead mob got mobilized on some vague claims...
Where did alleged rape occur? Was stat or forced?
It's right in the article. Forced a woman to perform oral sex. She was not underage at the time. He 'apologized' later via text, saying he thought she wanted to be forced (I'm paraphrasing, but it's still gross). It's still rape.