Prosecutors in Los Angeles said they have filed seven additional sexual assault counts against adult film actor Ron Jeremy, which together with previous charges carry a maximum sentence of more than 300 years in prison.
The seven new counts filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office involve six women and go back to 1996, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
They add to other charges previously filed against Jeremy, 67, whose real name is Ron Jeremy Hyatt. If convicted on all of the more than 30 counts, Jeremy faces a maximum possible sentence of 330 years to life in prison, the district attorney’s office said.
The new charges include three counts of forcible rape, two counts of forcible oral copulation and one count each of sexual battery by restraint and assault with intent to commit forcible digital penetration, the district attorney’s office said in Wednesday’s statement.
In all, prosecutors allege there were 23 victims in crimes that span from 1996 to 2020.
Jeremy’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, said he was surprised by the additional charges. “They are more of the same, and why they are piling on at this juncture is strange,” he said.
“He doesn’t deny being with some of these women, but it was consensual,” Goldfarb said.
The new charges span 17 years and involve alleged victims ranging in age from 17 to 38, according to the district attorney’s office.
Jeremy is accused of raping a 19-year-old woman during a photo shoot in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles in 1996. He is also accused of raping a woman at a party at a nightclub and a 17-year-old at a Woodland Hills home.
Jeremy was arrested and charged in June. Later, more counts were filed. He was being held in lieu of $6.6 million bail Wednesday night, according to online Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records.
Goldfarb said that he expects the case to go to trial rather than being settled some other way like in a plea agreement.
Jeremy was a teacher from Queens, New York, whose career in porn was launched when a girlfriend sent nude photos of him to “Playgirl.” He has appeared in nearly 2,000 X-rated films as well as some mainstream movies.
