Ron Jeremy Won’t Undergo Trial Where He Faced 300 Years Behind Bars
Ron Jeremy will not face trial because he has been ruled mentally incompetent.
Fewer figures in the pornography industry are both as famous and infamous as Ron Jeremy (whose actual legal name is Ronald Hyatt). The prolific actor became part of our shared pop culture consciousness long ago, but his fans were horrified when he was indicted for 34 counts of sexual assault, which included 12 counts of rape. Ron Jeremy was going to face a trial where he could be potentially sentenced to 300 years behind bars, but Yahoo! reports that no trial will happen because the actor is mentally incompetent.
This was the verdict of a Los Angeles judge, Ronald S. Harris, after reviewing reports compiled by both the prosecution and defense. He declared that the veteran porn star was suffering from an “incurable neurocognitive decline.” This condition is unlikely to improve, though if it does (the prosecution is arguing for the actor to be periodically re-evaluated for changes to his mental state), Ron Jeremy may find himself facing trial once more.
For Ron Jeremy and his fans, news that he won’t be going on trial is bittersweet at best. While this means the actor will presumably leave jail soon (he’s been behind bars since 2020), it also means that he will never have his proper day in court. Fans of the actor who think he is innocent will never get to see Jeremy prove this in court, and the horrific nature of the allegations may have permanently poisoned the porn star’s reputation.
From the 1990s to as late as 2019, Ron Jeremy has been accused of assaulting a number of girls and women whose ages ranged from 15 to 51 years old. They previously provided grand jury testimony alleging the porn star would trap them in secluded spaces like restaurant bathrooms and assault them. Needless to say, those who brought these charges against Ron Jeremy are likeliest to be the most disappointed he is not going to face the scrutiny of a trial.
Interestingly enough, Ron Jeremy would never have been in danger of going on trial if not for the rampant sexual misconduct of Harvey Weinstein. In the wake of revelations about Weinstein and the advent of the #MeToo movement, a task force was created to try to identify other sexual harassers in the entertainment industry and make them face justice. That task force led to charges against Weinstein for rape and sexual assault last December, and it also led to Ron Jeremy getting charged based largely on the testimony of so many alleged victims.
It’s possible that Ron Jeremy may still go to trial if prosecutors attempt to retry him for other things. For example, his jury ended up deadlocked on some of the other counts against him, paving the way to take the matter to court once again. The same thing happened to Danny Masterson: his jury couldn’t come to a verdict last month over three counts of rape, and the star is going to be retried soon, though only time will tell whether Jeremy’s mental decline affects his likelihood of getting convicted if he is ever retried.
