A Los Angeles judge has rejected Brian Hickerson’s second bid to wipe away two felony domestic violence convictions tied to his relationship with Hayden Panettiere. Judge Olivia Rosales denied the request on August 13, keeping the convictions for corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant on his record.
The ruling came three days before Panettiere died at age 36 in Greenville, South Carolina, and the timing is one reason the case is drawing attention now. Hickerson had asked the court to dismiss the convictions from a domestic violence case in which Panettiere was the victim, but the court did not grant relief.
Prosecutors used the hearing to attack Hickerson’s claim that he had stayed sober. They pointed to a May interview, conducted by TMZ’s Charlie Neff ahead of the publication of Panettiere’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, and said he appeared to be under the influence of a stimulant. In that interview, Hickerson discussed Panettiere’s account of their abusive relationship and acknowledged conduct described in the book, including an episode in which he threatened her with a phone. He said, “I did it. I did it,” while addressing that moment.
That was not the only issue prosecutors raised. Court records obtained by PEOPLE show they also cited Hickerson’s 2025 encounters with law enforcement, including an August 2 or August 3 incident at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood and an August 6 arrest that led to a charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance. Hickerson later received judicial diversion, completed 10 Narcotics Anonymous sessions, and in January 2026 submitted proof that he had finished the program and had no newly reported law-enforcement contact during the period reviewed by the court.
Rosales sided with the prosecution and found that Hickerson had not remained free of new offenses. Prosecutors said his attorney’s claim that he was sober did not square with what they saw in the footage and in the law-enforcement record, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office later said it did not believe Hickerson’s attorney had been aware of the interview or of the evidence it thought called his sobriety into question. Hickerson has not publicly responded to that characterization.
The decision leaves two felony convictions in place and closes off Hickerson’s latest attempt to erase them, at least for now. What it does not answer is whether the same 2025 conduct that defeated his petition will lead to anything further beyond the dismissed misdemeanor case, or whether the court will see any basis for revisiting the record later.
Authorities have not established any connection between the allegations raised at Hickerson’s hearing and Panettiere’s death.
