Matlock actor David Del Rio has reportedly been fired from the CBS legal drama following an investigation into an allegation of sexual assault.
The hit series, which stars Oscar and Emmy winner Kathy Bates, is currently shooting its second season. Del Rio played Billy Martinez, a first-year associate at law firm Jacobson Moore.
Deadline reports that the alleged incident occurred on September 26 and involved fellow Matlock actor Leah Lewis. She plays another first-year associate named Sarah Franklin, and the characters were in separate relationships on the show.
According to sources, the alleged assault was reported on October 2 and triggered an immediate investigation by producers and CBS Studios.
Del Rio was reportedly fired and escorted off the lot the same day, with Matlock executive producer Eric Christian Olsen among those who led him away.
The Independent has approached representatives for Del Rio and Lewis for a statement. CBS Studios confirmed that Del Rio has left the show but declined to comment further on the matter.
Filming on Matlock has continued, and the show’s writers will have to rework scripts to write the Martinez character off the show. The second season is set to premiere on October 12.
Del Rio, who is married, made his television debut in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2008. He is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts in Miami and the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, School of Film and Television.
He was a regular cast member of Nickelodeon’s The Troop from 2009 to 2011. His first film credit came in 2012’s Pitch Perfect.
His other television credits include episodes of Resident Advisors, Grease: Live, Search and Destroy, The Baker and the Beauty, Mateo Garcia, The Good Doctor and Maggie.
After the release of the first season of Matlock last year, Bates initially appeared to say she would retire, but later claimed she had been “misunderstood.”
“I think it was misunderstood because I had one foot out the door until I read Jennie Urman’s script and I was like, ‘okay, now we’re talking,’” Bates told ABC News last September. “And I want [Matlock] to run for years and years.”
The Oscar-winning star had previously told the New York Times: “Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it,” she said of her new show. “And it’s exhausting. This is my last dance.”
The show is a reboot of the Eighties and Nineties original, which starred Andy Griffith. Created by Charmed producer Jennie Snyder Urman, the show also stars Jason Ritter and Skye P Marshall.
