Porn star Ron Jeremy pleads not guilty to new rape charges

94

View
comments

Adult film star Ron Jeremy pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to new charges of rape and sexual assault involving six victims, including a teenage girl, prosecutors said.

Jeremy, 67, entered the pleas to seven additional charges including three of forcible rape, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The new charges involve alleged attacks dating from 1996 to 2013 on victims ranging in age from 17 to 38, prosecutors said.

The 17-year-old was raped at a Woodland Hills home in 2008, prosecutors contend.

The other alleged victims include a 19-year-old woman who was raped during a photo shoot in the San Fernando Valley; a 26-year-old woman who was raped at a party in a nightclub; a 38-year-old who was sexually assaulted at a West Hollywood bar where Jeremy was a regular; a woman who was sexually assaulted at Jeremy’s home and a woman who was assaulted at a strip club.

Jeremy is now facing a total of 35 charges involving 23 alleged victims, including a 15-year-old girl. The attacks occurred from 1996 to 2020, authorities contend.

Nicknamed ‘The Hedgehog,’ Jeremy has been among the best-known and most prolific performers in the adult film industry since the 1970s.

Jeremy, whose legal name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, was investigated and charged by a district attorney’s task force formed to take on sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry as the #MeToo era gained momentum in late 2017.

He has been held in jail on $6.6 million bail since June.

If convicted of all charges, Jeremy could face a sentence of more than 330 years to life in state prison.

Last month, prosecutors in Los Angeles say they had been contacted by at least 22 women across the US who had made allegations ‘ranging from misdemeanour sexual battery to rape’ against Jeremy. 

Top porn star Keiran Lee – who works with leading porn production companies such as Canadian firm Brazzers – said they have introduced measures including the use of CCTV cameras on set and hiring ‘talent liaison officers’ to help performers deal with any allegations of abuse.

Keiran, 38, said: ‘The industry turned its back on Ron Jeremy a long time ago.

‘He had let the fame go to his head and he thought he was the man and to be fair he was one of the biggest porn stars ever.

‘He was already banned from the porn industry’s main awards show, the AVN Awards, for walking around and groping people.

‘I’ve never met him and he never worked with us but after the whole Ron Jeremy thing kicked off what [we] are doing is making sure there is a special female liaison on set at all times.

‘[We] saw the Ron Jeremy situation and decided to review best practices during lockdown to make sets even safer than they already are.

‘So now if a girl ever feels like she is not comfortable with something she has someone she can confide in.

‘I say female but it’s for all talent, so female and male performers can go to the liaison officer and let them know if there’s anything they’re not comfortable with.

‘Talent that aren’t working on the day will be hired as liaison officers so it puts money in their pockets and there is someone neutral and not affiliated with the production there for the talent.

‘We are also having a camera filming at all times during the day, like a CCTV camera that is on at all times so we have video evidence if anything goes wrong.

‘Thankfully we have never had anything like that but it’s good to be prepared if a director or performer steps out of line.

‘From what I understand Ron Jeremy was a sleazeball off camera so we want transparency on set at all times, although from what I understand a lot of the women who have made complaints against him were not involved in the porn industry.

‘Production has been on halt because of the pandemic but these guidelines are now in place for when we go back on set.

‘It’s also in response to the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein case, we’ve learned from mistakes they have made and want to make sure nothing like that happens on our sets.’

In August DailyMail.com published exclusive photos of Jeremy’s filthy, cockroach-infested LA apartment. 

His lounge filled with dozens of boxes, while the kitchen sides were filled with paperwork, used candles and empty bottles. One corner of the apartment is seen filled with medication and discarded pill bottles and prescriptions with his real name, Ron J Hyatt written on them.

There’s barely enough room to move around in the apartment due to the junk left on the floor which is black with dirt.

A woman who met Jeremy, 67, in 2017 said she went to his rundown one bedroom apartment to use the restroom and was so shocked by what she saw she began snapping pictures.

‘It was disgusting, I was so shocked. You could hardly open the front door and you couldn’t get in the bathroom at all.

‘There was trash piled up, old porn memorabilia stuffed in overflowing boxes. His kitchen table looked like an unkempt outside porch, there were plants that had grown around the table legs and into the floor.

‘I honestly thought he was on that show Hoarders. There were cans of roach spray left on the side, piles of medication, books, DVDs, paperwork and he had pet turtles.’

The woman claimed Jeremy aggressively came on to her while she was in his apartment but agreed to go to an event later that night with him.

But she gave Jeremy the slip and was later bombarded by calls from him.

She said: ‘He was so angry that I took off without saying goodbye. He was enraged, it was really unsettling how angry he got.’

The woman said she isn’t surprised about the allegations against Jeremy because he was so sexually aggressive with her and tried to grope her in her car.