Ron Jeremy, the former porn actor facing 34 counts of sexual assault, has been committed to a mental institution due to "severe dementia," Breitbart reported. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said the 69-year-old could spend two years at the facility.
Charges were first brought against Jeremy, whose real name is Ronald Hyatt, in June 2020 after he was accused of raping four women he picked up in nightclubs and bars around West Hollywood. Several more came forward with allegations of their own, sometimes going as far back as the 1990s.
In all, allegations from 20 women turned into 34 counts of sexual assault against Jeremy. However, instead of facing these charges in court, Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Harris has found that Jeremy is unfit to stand trial due to his "incurable neurocognitive decline."
Stuart Goldfarb, Jeremy’s defense attorney, had revealed that his client was so far gone that he didn't recognize him anymore. "I believed he would have been found innocent," Glodfarb said last month.
"It is unfortunate due to mental condition he will not go to trial and have the opportunity to clear his name," he added. Mental health experts evaluated Jeremy and found that he has severe dementia, which would preclude him from taking the stand.
It is likely a permanent and progressive condition, meaning his alleged victims will also not get their day in court. The former pornographer was facing up to 250 years in prison before this diagnosis, People reported.
The allegations involve girls as young as 15. He has maintained his innocence, once calling these charges "pure lies or buyer's remorse" in a 2017 Rolling Stone interview.
"I have never and would never rape anyone," he claimed. Jeremey perhaps protested too much by urging other sexual assault victims to come forward against their abusers.
"These real predators need to be taken down," Jeremy said. This alleged predator will instead be locked away in a mental facility.
Meanwhile, the accusers are left to pick up the pieces of their lives without recourse to justice. Infamous attorney Gloria Allred said the news was "very disturbing" to the two alleged "Jane Doe" victims she represents, according to NPR.
"It is very distressing," she said. "Both were ready to testify at the trial."
Allred explained that the process is emotionally taxing for alleged victims who must relive the trauma each time they cooperate with officials. "They have worked with law enforcement," she said.
"They've testified before a grand jury. They've had to explain, tell what happened to them over and over and over with the hope that one day they could achieve justice, and now the hope is dimming," Allred added.
Although the alleged victims will not get to see Jeremy land behind bars, it's fitting that this demented smut peddler could live out the rest of his days confined to a mental facility. Whether he committed those crimes or not, he is a reprehensible figure.
