Ron Jeremy, porn star, charged with sexually assaulting four women
By Lisa Respers France and Cheri Mossburg, CNN
Porn star Ron Jeremy has been charged with forcibly raping three women and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents dating back to 2014, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced Tuesday.
Jeremy, 67, was charged with three counts each of forcible rape and forcible penetration by a foreign object and one count each of forcible oral copulation and sexual battery. On Friday, Jeremy pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to a tweet from District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
He remains in custody and is being held on $6.6 million bail.
Jeremy’s manager, Dante Rusciolelli, told CNN earlier this week that he’s dropping the actor as a client. Rusciolelli also referred CNN to a Facebook statement in which he said previous allegations against Jeremy made by Rolling Stone amid the Me Too movement were proved false.
“When Rolling Stone charged Ron with being in the ME TOO movement, he showed us proof against the allegations,” Rusciolelli said in the statement.
A spokesperson for Rolling Stone told CNN: “Contrary to Mr. Rusciolelli’s assertion, and despite his efforts over many years to bully Rolling Stone and EJ Dickson into retracting the article, Rolling Stone was never given any proof of Jeremy’s innocence. We carefully vetted the article prior to publication and continue to stand behind it.”
Rusciolelli claimed that “at the time, the police and District Attorneys backed Ron up.” This time, however, “the District Attorney in Los Angeles is bringing charges of sexual misconduct against him, and we were not given any proof of his innocence at this time.”
“We hope that these allegations against him are not true, but if they are, we hope that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau spent two years investigating the allegations against Jeremy, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.
Jeremy, who was born Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, stands accused of forcibly raping a 25-year-old woman at a home in West Hollywood in May 2014.
He also is charged with allegedly sexually assaulting two women, ages 33 and 46, on separate occasions at a West Hollywood bar in 2017, as well as forcibly raping a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in July 2019.
Names of the alleged victims were not released, and prosecutors recommend bail of $6.6 million.
If convicted, the actor faces a possible maximum sentence of 90 years to life in state prison. The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The District Attorney’s Office declined a case against him due to insufficient evidence stemming from an alleged incident in 2016.
Jeremy is considered one of the icons of the adult entertainment industry. He was the subject of the 2001 documentary “Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy.”
In 2015 he talked to CNN about almost dying from an aortic dissection in 2013. While he came close to death, the actor said he has always subscribed to the idea that living a good life and being a good person is the best thing one can do on this Earth.
“I’ve always been spiritual,” Jeremy said at the time.
He is expected back in court on August 31.
Clarification: This article has been updated to add a statement from Rolling Stone regarding its article on Ron Jeremy. Rolling Stone says it stands by its reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to a Guinness World Record said to be held by Jeremy. No such record exists, according to the organization.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Cheri Mossburg contributed to this story.
