Cartoon Network’s Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland has denied a new report alleging he sexually assaulted a woman by forcing her to perform oral sex on him. The report also alleged he exchanged messages of a sexual nature with fans, some of whom were as young as 16 when the online correspondences began.
The accusations represent the latest setback for Justin Roiland, who was charged earlier this year with felony domestic violence against a former girlfriend. He was later cleared of the charges due to a lack of evidence, though not before he was dropped by the animated show.
In a new report this week, NBC News said it spoke to 11 women and gender “nonbinary” people who messaged with Justin Roiland over text, e-mail, and social media between 2013 and 2022. Nine of the interviewees alleged that Roiland shifted their conversations toward a sexual nature, with three saying they were 16 years old when they began their correspondences.
One woman alleged that, after exchanging messages on Tinder in March 2019, Roiland bought her two alcoholic beverages even though she had already told him she was 20 years old. She claims he then asked her to perform oral sex on him. When she declined, the woman said, Roiland pushed her head towards his crotch and she stopped resisting.
NBC News reported that Roiland wrote the outlet a letter calling the allegations “false and defamatory.”
The woman who alleged sexual assault shared text messages with NBC News from four months later that appear to show her confronting Roiland, saying that the sexual encounter was “not handled by [Roiland] in the best way” and that “it was not black and white but verbal consent is [very] important.”
Roiland’s response reportedly reads, “Shit yeah, I didn’t?? I’m really sorry! Fuck. That’s not cool at all — jeeeesus. That is not me whatsoever… I literally didn’t get consent??”
NBC News’ report refers to messages in which Roiland referred to two different people as “jailbait” due to their being 16 years old. One message reportedly shows a 16-year-old girl expressing interest in livestreaming as a video gamer, to which Roiland responded, “Then once you turn 18 you just start cam whoring.”
Another woman described a online correspondence with Roiland that began in May 2016, when she was 19. She later agreed to meet with Roiland in person in Los Angeles, though not before her father approved.
In L.A., she alleged, she ended up in a hot tub with Roiland and a female friend of his following a party She alleged that she remembers drinking liquor and admitted to forgetting parts of the night, but remembers performing sexual acts with Roiland’s friend in front of Roiland upon his request, and that Roiland had sex with her in front of his friend.
An attorney for Roiland told NBC News that the woman had had consexual sex with Roiland in the hours leading up to the hot tub incident, which the woman claims she doesn’t remember. The attorney also said that Roiland was not responsible for her sexual encounter with the other woman in the hot tub.
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