LOS ANGELES — The preliminary setting hearing in the Los Angeles criminal case against Ron Jeremy has been postponed, once again, until March 30.
Judge Jose I. Sandoval presided over today's hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, which, under new health and safety rules, currently does not allow relatives, friends and non-press public to attend hearings.
Jeremy’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, continued arguing that he could not conduct a proper defense without more information about the identity of the victims and witnesses.
Judge Sandoval ruled against Goldfarb’s motion stating that “for the moment, I believe you have the information you’re entitled to.”
As Goldfarb exclusively told XBIZ, “All I can tell you is that we’re filing an appeal, a writ,” indicating that the case will move up to the appeals court after today's hearing regarding the matter of the victims’ and witnesses’ identities.
Sexual assault cases have special discovery rules designed to protect the safety of the victims, and the defense is requesting those special rules to be relaxed to identify the individuals behind the assault allegations in order to answer them.
Goldfarb told XBIZ at last month’s hearing that he cannot conduct a proper investigation to exonerate his client unless he knows who the 23 victims cited by the District Attorney’s Office are, or the almost-50 witnesses.
At the last hearing on December 14, the prosecutors — Deputy District Attorneys Paul Thompson and Marlene Martinez — opposed the motion.
Today’s was the second hearing since George Gascon replaced Jackie Lacey as Los Angeles District Attorney, after defeating her on Election Day, November 3.
DA Thompson told XBIZ that at this point all the information he can share will be revealed during the preliminary hearing.
Before the hearing, Goldfarb and Thompson conferred in a public area next to the courtroom where a frustrated Thompson could be heard within earshot of witnesses and reporters telling Goldfarb, “You just wanna postpone this indefinitely!”
The previous preliminary setting hearing had been continued on December 14 after two earlier postponements on August 31 and October 28. Twice during previous hearings the prosecution had added more charges concerning other alleged incidents of sexual assault and rape.
Jeremy, wearing a brown prison suit, was marched into the courtroom around 10:30 a.m. (PST). His signature black dyed hair is now almost completely faded out and he sported a massive white beard visible under a white cloth face mask.
