[ad_1]
A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday announced that porn star Ron Jeremy is mentally incompetent to stand trial on dozens of rape and sexual assault charges.
Supreme Court Judge Ronald S. Harris said in the hearing that after reviewing the reports of the two prosecutors and Jeremy’s defense, he was in “incurable neurocognitive denial” from which he believed to recover.
Prosecutors asked that he be re-evaluated periodically.
A hearing to commit Jeremy, 69, whose legal name is Ronald Hyatt, to a state hospital will take place next month.
Jeremy pleaded not guilty after a grand jury indicted him on 34 counts of sexual assault, including 12 counts of rape.
“When he was arrested two years ago, I said he would be found innocent of all charges,” Jeremy’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, said in an email. “Two years on and with the additional findings I received, I believe he will be found not guilty. Unfortunately due to his mental condition he will not stand trial and have the opportunity to clear his name.”
Jeremy, who has remained in prison since his arrest in 2020, did not attend the hearing.
An email seeking comment Tuesday from the district attorney’s office was not immediately returned.
The allegations span almost 3 decades
Nicknamed “The Hedgehog,” Jeremy has been one of the most famous and prolific actors in the porn industry since the 1970s, and has become a pop culture newcomer recognizable through reality shows, music videos and occasional cameos in non-fiction films. pornography.
He has long been a magnet for people seeking autographs and selfies, so he met mostly women and girls aged 15 to 51 who were accused of assault between the 1990s and 2019.
According to transcripts of grand jury testimony from women and girls obtained by The Associated Press, Jeremy would lure her to small secluded places, often the bathrooms of West Hollywood bars and grills she frequented, trap and assault her.
The Los Angeles Times first reported that Jeremy would not be trying.
The charges stem from a district attorney’s task force set up to investigate sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry after allegations surfaced about powerful movie producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017.
Jeremy is among several people charged in the task force, along with Weinstein himself, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault in December.
Prosecutors are still deciding whether to retry Weinstein on some of the deadlocked jurors. They plan to retry actor Danny Masterson on three counts of rape after a jury failed to reach a verdict last month.
[ad_2]
Source link