Ron Jeremy: adult film star charged with 20 new rape and sexual assault counts

The adult film star Ron Jeremy was charged on Monday with 20 new counts of rape or sexual assault involving 12 women and a teenage girl, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said.

The charges come two months after the 67-year-old was charged with the rape of three women and the sexual assault of a fourth in incidents dating back to 2014.

Ron Jeremy: adult film star charged with rape and sexual assault of four women

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The new charges bring the number of his alleged victims to 17, ranging from 15 to 54 years old, and span a 16-year period, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

Jeremy pleaded not guilty in court in Los Angeles on Monday. He also pleaded not guilty to the previous charges and wrote on Twitter then: “I can’t wait to prove my innocence in court! Thank you to everyone for all the support.”

Jeremy, whose legal name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, has been held in jail on $6.6m bail since June.

The new counts span from 2004 to January of this year, when he is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 21-year-old outside a business in Hollywood, the district attorney’s office said.

The charges include five counts of forcible rape and six counts of sexual battery by restraint. They also include an allegation that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at a party north of Los Angeles in 2004. Many of the other incidents are alleged to have taken place at a West Hollywood bar he frequented, the statement said.

If convicted as charged, Jeremy faces a possible maximum prison sentence of more than 250 years to life.

Investigators from the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department put out a call for more possible victims to come forward when the initial charges were filed in June.

Jeremy, nicknamed “the Hedgehog”, has been among the best known and most prolific performers in the adult film industry since the 1970s, appearing in more than 2,000 adult films.

He was investigated and charged by a district attorney’s taskforce formed to take on sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry as the #MeToo era gained momentum in late 2017.