Ron Jeremy Found ‘Not Competent’ to Stand Trial in Serial Rape Case
Ron Jeremy, the porn star charged with sexually assaulting 21 women, was found incompetent to stand trial Tuesday by a Los Angeles judge.
Jeremy, 69 — whose full name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt — was not present for the hearing in a mental health courthouse in Hollywood. Judge Robert S. Harrison made his ruling after reviewing a July 2022 assessment from a defense-hired psychologist and an October 2022 report from a doctor hired by prosecutors.
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“Mr. Hyatt is not competent for trial,” Judge Harrison said. “Both reports indicate Mr. Hyatt suffers from an incurable neurocognitive decline, and he would most likely not be restorable.”
Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson said a prior neurological assessment dating back to 2019 found that some of Jeremy’s “issues may be caused by hearing loss.” He said prosecutors would push for ongoing treatment in an attempt to improve his condition. The judge set a follow-up hearing for next month, saying the “next step” is to get another assessment that could recommend Jeremy placement in a state hospital with possible treatment or some other setting.
A different judge overseeing Jeremy’s felony rape case in a different courthouse suspended the case last year after Jeremy appeared “incoherent” and unable to recognize his own lawyer ahead of a critical hearing.
“I was just up in the cell where he was being kept, and I tried to get his attention unsuccessfully,” his defense lawyer, Stuart Goldfarb, told the court at the March 17 hearing. “He was unable to determine who I was and wouldn’t accommodate both myself and the bailiff to fit into the wheelchair to come down here. I don’t think he should be forced to come down here under these circumstances.”
Judge George Lomeli said the courtroom’s bailiff also found that Jeremy was “incoherent” and “not obeying commands.”
The Los Angeles Times later obtained an email from a prosecutor that revealed doctors had determined Jeremy was suffering from “severe dementia.”
Jeremy, whose legal name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, was initially charged in 2020 with raping four women. The case quickly exploded with additional allegations, and he was was indicted in August 2021 on 34 counts of sexual assault involving 21 victims, including minors. The charges, dating as far back as 1996, involve women and girls ranging in age from 51 to 15, as well as a dozen counts of forcible assault. He has pleaded not guilty.
According to prosecutors, Jeremy used his celebrity status to disarm “vulnerable” women and lure them into secluded spaces. Prosecutors say eight of his alleged assaults took place at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, a restaurant on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, where Jeremy enjoyed VIP access to behind-the-scenes employee areas.
Shortly before the criminal case was suspended last March, a judge was due to hear arguments on Jeremy’s request to have his case broken up into 21 separate trials. “Allowing Mr. Hyatt’s jury to hear about dozens of allegations of alleged misconduct will prevent his jurors from judging him fairly on each charged count and from scrupulously applying the burden of proof,” his defense motion calling for the separate trials read.
Prosecutors opposed the motion, saying the charged offenses involve the same class of crimes and are “connected by a common plan.” That means they would be cross-admissible in separate trials and involve overlapping witnesses, which would waste judicial resources. They argued eight of the 21 Janes Does allegedly were attacked at the Rainbow Bar and Grill “using very similar methods.”
“More important to the people than the time of the jurors or court is the risk of re-traumatization inherent in having sexual assault victims testify repeatedly,” Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez argued in her opposition filing obtained by Rolling Stone.
“In all 21 cases, the defendant preyed on victims that were vulnerable and unable to fight back. Whether that was by isolating the women in a bathroom, in a bedroom, at his friend’s house, in a parking lot or by perpetrating a surprise attack upon them, the defendant never gave the women an opportunity to fight back as he sexually assaulted them,” the reply says. “The only way to prevent a substantial waste of court time, juror time and victim and witness time is to have a joint trial.”
Jeremy’s defense lawyer Kate Hardie said Tuesday that the judge’s decision to indefinitely suspend the case was the only possible outcome.
“[The prosecution’s] doctor found more in favor of incompetency. She was more thorough,” Hardie said after the hearing. “I don’t think there were any other options where there’s a medical issue.”
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