Porn star Ron Jeremy accused of rape and sexual assault

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Adult film star Ron Jeremy has been charged with raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth in incidents in West Hollywood from 2014 to 2019, the Los Angeles County district attorney said on Tuesday.

Jeremy, 67, is one of the biggest names in pornography and has appeared in more than 2,000 adult films since the 1970s.

Prosecutors said Jeremy, whose real name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, forcibly raped a 25-year-old woman in a West Hollywood home in May 2014, according to a statement from Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey.

They also alleged that he sexually assaulted two women, ages 33 and 46, on separate occasions at a West Hollywood bar in 2017 and forcibly raped one of them.

In a fourth incident, prosecutors said Jeremy forcibly raped a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in July 2019, the statement said.

As City News Service reported, Jeremy did not enter a plea at his first court appearance Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He was remanded in custody in lieu of $6.6 million bail and will be formally charged Thursday.

If convicted on all counts, Jeremy faces a possible maximum sentence of 90 years to life in state prison.

Jeremy’s manager Dante Rusciolelli said Tuesday he dumped the porn star after learning of the allegations.

“We hope these allegations against him are not true, but if so, we hope he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Rusciolelli wrote in an Instagram post.

When Rolling Stone reported allegations of sexual misconduct by Jeremy in 2017, he told the magazine that he had “never raped anyone and never will.”

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney)