[1:54 p.m. Updated with a new interview with the Public Information Officer of the Los Angeles District Attorney.]
LOS ANGELES — Ron Jeremy appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday afternoon for his arraignment on forcible rape and sexual assault charges brought forth by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office earlier in the day.
The arraignment hearing was "continued," or delayed, until Friday and Jeremy has not yet pled. The district attorney asked for bail to be set at $6.6 million, which legal analysts consider unusually high for non-murder cases.
Jeremy, law enforcement officers, the judge and counsel were all shown in photographs of the hearing wearing masks. Jeremy had his hands behind his back and appeared to be handcuffed.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s press release stated that Jeremy “surrendered himself.”
Judge Miguel Espinosa told Jeremy that he “has the right to a speedy arraignment.”
A local Fox affiliate described Jeremy as “the third man to be charged by a task force formed by District Attorney Jackie Lacey in 2017 to investigate sexual misconduct allegations in the entertainment industry.”
The District Attorney’s office is accusing Jeremy of eight counts of sexual assault: "forcible oral copulation" and "forcible rape" (two separate charges) on or about May 21, 2014 against a Jane Doe No. 1; "forcible rape" and "sexual battery by restraint" (two separate charges) on or about March 11, 2017 against a Jane Doe No. 2; two charges of "sexual penetration by use of force" and one of "sexual penetration by intoxicating substance" (three separate charges) on September 10, 2017 against a Jane Doe No. 3; and one charge of "forcible rape" on July 15, 2019 against a Jane Doe No. 4.
The 2014 incident reportedly took place in “a West Hollywood home.” Jane Doe No. 1 is reported as “a 25-year-old woman,” although it is unclear if that is her age now or at the time of the alleged assault. The Fox news report identified the home in question as belonging to Jane Doe No. 1.
Both the 2017 incidents and the 2019 incident are all alleged to have taken place “at a West Hollywood bar,” which some sources have claimed is one of Jeremy’s usual haunts, the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip.
Jeremy’s attorney Stuart Goldfarb confirmed that the location of the 2019 allegation is indeed the Rainbow Bar & Grill. Jeremy’s lawyer also told the press after the arraignment that Jeremy and Jane Doe No. 4 went into a private bathroom together and he will produce witnesses that will say she seemed “happy” when she came out the bathroom and that it was his “understanding that she took pictures of his private parts.”
A fifth reported incident investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department did not result in a charge due to insufficient evidence.
West Hollywood and the L.A. County Sheriff Department
All of the charges stem from investigations by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department, which has jurisdiction over West Hollywood. None of the incidents reported allege assaults in Jeremy’s residence, which is within the Los Angeles city limits and would have to be investigated by the LAPD.
The press releases put out by District Attorney Lacey’s office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department regarding the dates of the investigation and the charges do not specify details about when law enforcement received the four reports that led to the charges.
The release by the investigating unit states that “detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Special Victims Bureau investigated multiple allegations of adult sexual assault involving an actor from the adult film industry” and that “the incidents occurred between 2018 and 2020.”
“During the course of a two-year investigation, Special Victims Bureau detectives conducted numerous interviews and gathered several items of evidence, culminating in the identification of four female adult victims,” the statement continues.
“On June 22, 2020 [Monday], detectives presented the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office,” the Sheriff Department stated.
The press release issued yesterday by DA Lacey’s office is headlined “Adult Film Star Charged With Sexual Assault of 4 Women,” and announced that Jeremy had “been charged with forcibly raping three women and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents dating back to 2014.”
The DA stated that “in May 2014, the defendant is accused of forcibly raping a 25-year-old woman at a home in West Hollywood,” that he “allegedly sexually assaulted two women, ages 33 and 46, on separate occasions at a West Hollywood bar in 2017,” and that “he also is accused of forcibly raping a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in July 2019.”
XBIZ spoke today to a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department and asked whether any of the four incidents were reported back in 2018 or 2019, and what new evidence or witnesses prompted the Sheriff Department to present the case to the District Attorney on Monday, June 22.
The Sheriff Department’s spokesperson confirmed that “we were advised of incidents in 2018 and we investigated for two years,” but “the information on the press release is the only one we are giving right now.”
The Sheriff Department would not comment on the timing of the charges.
Over the last few weeks, public opposition to both Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and District Attorney Lacey mounted following the #BlackLivesMatter protests and the recent handling of the investigation into the death of security guard Andres Guardado, an 18-year-old fatally shot by sheriff's deputies in Gardena.
The last headlines about Lacey immediately before the filing of the charges against Jeremy concerned Southern California Democratic Party leader and congressperson Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) withdrawing his endorsement of Lacey under pressure from protesters and progressives within his party.
In related news, Jeremy’s management company, Golden Artists Entertainment, dropped the performer from their roster yesterday.
The Entertainment Industry Sex Crimes Task Force
After the initial publication of this story, the Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office Greg Risling spoke with XBIZ and offered more details about the two-year investigation and DA Lacey’s task force.
Risling confirmed that the investigation into the allegations against Ron Jeremy was handled by the Entertainment Industry Sex Crimes Task Force which had been created by DA Lacey in 2017 after receiving criticism concerning her office’s handling of the Harvey Weinstein allegations.
Although at some point news sources referred to at least 40 investigations being handled by the task force, from 2017 until last week, Lacey’s task force had only pursued charges against one defendant — Harvey Weinstein.
The Weinstein charges were announced by Lacey on January 6, 2020, in a press conference that coincided with renewed public appearances for her current re-election campaign.
“This is the first criminal case filed by the task force that I created in November of 2017 in response to the sexual assault allegations in the entertainment industry," she told the press at the time.
“The investigation required task force members to travel around the United States and to Europe to interview victims and witnesses, some of whom were hesitant to get involved,” PIO Risling said at the time. “Deputy district attorneys also had to thoroughly examine police reports, witness statements and materials presented by the defense in determining what criminal charges to file in the case.”
This past Monday, a second case connected to a Task Force investigation, that of mainstream producer and agent David Guillod, was filed by the Santa Barbara District Attorney.
“That was presented to us,” Risling told XBIZ, “but was ultimately pursued by the Santa Barbara DA. But it was technically Case No. 2,” connected to Lacey’s task force.
The Ron Jeremy case is the third task force case that resulted in charges since 2017.
XBIZ asked Risling if there were any changes in the investigation in the last week that prompted the filing of the charges, and he said that “to my knowledge, no.”
“It’s filed when it’s ready,” Risling said.
Risling also disputed the statement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Office that “on June 22, 2020 [Monday], detectives presented the Ron Jeremy case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.”
“You should check with them on that. That’s not accurate,” Risling told XBIZ. “The cases were presented [to the DA's office] at different times.”
Main Image: Screencap by XBIZ
