Brian Hickerson lost his bid to clear two felony domestic violence convictions tied to the Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson relationship. A Los Angeles judge rejected the request on Aug. 13, keeping the convictions in place as prosecutors pressed a sobriety challenge built around a May interview and later law-enforcement contacts.
Aug. 13 in Los Angeles
Judge Olivia Rosales denied Hickerson’s request after he sought to dismiss two felony convictions for corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant from a domestic violence case in which Panettiere was the victim. The ruling left the existing felony record intact.
The hearing came three days before Panettiere died at age 36 in Greenville, South Carolina. Her death remains under investigation, and authorities have not established any connection between the allegations raised at the hearing and the circumstances of her death.
May with Charlie Neff
In May, Charlie Neff in May interviewed Hickerson for TMZ ahead of the publication of This Is Me: A Reckoning. During that conversation, Hickerson discussed Panettiere’s account of their abusive relationship and addressed conduct described in the book, including an incident in which he threatened her with a phone.
Hickerson said, “I did it. I did it.” That admission gave prosecutors a clean way to test whether his later request for relief had any credibility on the sobriety issue they planned to raise in court.
Two August arrests
At the Aug. 13 hearing, the prosecutor said Hickerson looked “quite high on what appears to be a stimulant” and “very, very clearly not sober.” Court records obtained by PEOPLE also show prosecutors pointed to Hickerson’s 2025 encounters with law enforcement while opposing the petition.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office later said prosecutors did not believe Hickerson’s attorney had known about the May interview or the evidence they thought called his sobriety into question. Prosecutors cited two incidents from August 2025: one tied to Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood, with the Los Angeles County Sheriff identifying the arrest on Aug. 3 after prosecutors listed Aug. 2, and another arrest on Aug. 6, 2025, when Hickerson was charged with one misdemeanor count of being under the influence of a controlled substance.
January 2026 review
Hickerson later received judicial diversion requiring 10 Narcotics Anonymous sessions, obedience to all laws, and abstention from drugs and alcohol. In January 2026, he submitted proof that he had completed the sessions, and a judge dismissed the misdemeanor charge after finding that he had successfully completed diversion.
That left the felony convictions untouched. For Hickerson, the practical result is simple: the misdemeanor case dropped away, but the court did not wipe out the older felony record, so any further relief would have to overcome the same credibility problem that sank the Aug. 13 petition.
