Porn actor Ron Jeremy is mentally incompetent to stand trial on rape charges

A Los Angeles court on Tuesday said porn performer Ron Jeremy is mentally incompetent to stand trial on dozens of counts of rape and sexual harassment.

Supreme Court Justice Ronald S. Harris said at the hearing that after examining reports from both the prosecutor’s office and Jeremy’s defense, he is in “an incurable neurocognitive decline” from which he is unlikely to recover.

The prosecutor’s office asked that it be reviewed periodically.

Next month, a hearing will be held to place 69-year-old Jeremy, whose real name is Ronald Hyatt, in a public hospital.

Jeremy pleaded not guilty after a grand jury indicted him on 34 counts of sexual harassment, including 12 counts of rape.

“When he was arrested two years ago, I said he would be found not guilty of all charges,” lawyer Jeremy Stewart Goldfarb wrote in an email. “Two years have passed, and with the additional discovery I received, I figured he would have been found not guilty. Unfortunately, due to his mental condition, he will not stand trial and will not be able to clear his name.”

Jeremy, who has remained in prison since his arrest in 2020, did not attend the hearing.

An email asking for comment on Tuesday from the district attorney’s office was not immediately returned.

Nicknamed “The Hedgehog”, Jeremy has been one of the most famous and prolific actors in the porn industry for decades and has become a recognizable pop cultural novelty through reality shows, public appearances and music videos.

He has long been a magnet for autograph and selfie seekers, and that is how he first encountered most of the women and girls aged 15 to 51 who he is accused of committing in assault between the 1990s and 2019.

According to transcripts of grand jury testimony from women and girls obtained by The Associated Press, Jeremy lured them to a small secluded location, often the bathroom of a West Hollywood bar and grill he frequented, trapping them and sexually abusing them.

The Los Angeles Times first reported that Jeremy would not stand trial.

The allegations were brought by the District Attorney’s task force set up to investigate sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry after reports of Harvey Weinstein in 2017 made the #metoo movement an international phenomenon.

Jeremy was one of the few men charged with the task force, along with Weinstein himself, who was convicted in December of rape and sexual harassment.

Prosecutors are still deciding whether Weinstein should be retried on several of the counts on which his jury was deadlocked. They plan to retry actor Danny Masterson on three counts of rape after his jury failed to reach a verdict last month.