'Rick & Morty' co-creator charged w/ domestic violence.

Ex-prosecutor here with an analysis of the charges. The [indictment](https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Roiland-complaint.pdf) is very short and does not provide any details regarding the specifics of the alleged crime beyond a date, so take this with a grain of salt, I'm doing a bit of speculating here (this is fairly typical, indictments tend to be only a few pages).

That said, you don't get charged with felony domestic violence for a simple spat that turns physical, most such cases (which comprise the vast bulk of DV cases) are charged as misdemeanors; in other words, they are only punishable by up to a year in the county jail. People only get charged with felony DV, which is punishable by up to five years in *prison* in most states (four in California), when the domestic violence seriously injures the victim (the state where I currently live uses the terminology of "malicious wounding"). In California (Cal. Pen. Code § 273.5), the equivalent description is "willfully inflict\[ing\] corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition." "Traumatic condition" is defined as an internal or external wound or other bodily condition caused by particular force. The statute puts a specific emphasis on strangulation as one such a "traumatic condition." To put it more simply, Justin Roiland is alleged to have injured the victim enough such that she has or had detectable injuries and possibly to have strangled her given the emphasis in the law. In a number of other states, assault with a physical implement also qualifies as felony DV but this doesn't appear to be the case in California.

As for the false imprisonment charge. The scope of false imprisonment as both a tort and a crime is wider than most people realize. You don't have to lock a person in a confined space to be guilty of false imprisonment. If you lie to someone and tell them that there is something horrible outside of the space to keep them confined, or threaten violence if they leave the space and the threat is credible enough that the person complies, both would result in a charge of false imprisonment; even if the door or other entry to the space was completely unlocked and the victim was physically "free" to leave. The specific charge here (Cal. Pen. Code § 236) is a lazy (typical of the California legislature) codification of the common law crime and therefore does not provide much detail on specific elements, relying instead on precedent to fill in the gaps. He is alleged to have effected the false imprisonment by "violence, menace, fraud, and deceit." This law (Cal. Pen. Code § 237(a)) , as written, is usually a misdemeanor but has been escalated to a felony using the sentencing guidelines in Cal. Pen. Code § 1170(h). Given the nature of the charges, I am guessing he likely kept the victim confined for the time by threatening her with additional violence if she refused to comply; but I have no additional information (it is not specified in the indictment).

No jokes here, these are extremely serious criminal charges. All told, Roiland faces a maximum of seven years, four on the DV charge and three on the false imprisonment charge (assuming consecutive sentencing). If convicted on either or both charges, I would expect him to get at least two years, probably four at maximum, but I do not know anything about what is specifically alleged and that will likely change the ultimate sentence. In many liberal jurisdictions, they won't drop DV-related charges even if the victim refuses to cooperate with the prosecution. Given charges of this seriousness bought in such an environment against a public figure, I would expect them to have substantial (and likely dramatic) evidence of the crime to justify bringing the felony charge. Particularly given that Roiland will likely employ the best counsel money can buy and this whole trial will be under a media microscope.

While Roiland's pleading not guilty (as is his right), failing some massive and entirely unexpected revelation of prosecutorial misconduct by the Orange County DA, my money's on the prosecution.

EDIT: Fixed a few typos and a missing citation.