Former porn star Ron Jeremy has been committed to a mental hospital after being declared unfit to stand trial for more than 30 counts of sexual assault due to suffering from “severe dementia.”
Jeremy, whose legal name is Ronald Hyatt, was sent to a mental hospital, where he could be for the next two years, Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Greg Risling said, according to multiple reports.
A hearing for the 69-year-old former porn star’s progress is set to be held on May 8.
Jeremy was indicted on 34 counts of sexual assault stemming from allegations made by 20 women. He was first charged in June 2020 with raping four women he met in West Hollywood bars and clubs. After that, dozens of more women came forward with their own allegations, some of them dating back to the 1990s.
Last month, Jeremy’s defense attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, told a Los Angeles courtroom that his client could no longer recognize him. The onetime porn king was also seen by mental health experts, who concluded that he suffers from severe dementia.
Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Harris later declared Jeremy unfit to stand trial after reviewing reports from both prosecutors and the former porn actor’s defense team. The judge found that Jeremy is in “incurable neurocognitive decline,” and is not likely to recover from his condition.
“I believed he would have been found innocent. It is unfortunate due to mental condition he will not go to trial and have the opportunity to clear his name,” Goldfarb told the Associated Press last month.
Accusers of Jeremy expressed their dismay over the news that the former porn star would not be going to trial. High-profile attorney Gloria Allred, who represents two of his accusers, said the judge’s ruling was “very disturbing” to her clients.
Jeremy has been in jail since his arrest in 2020.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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