LOS ANGELES — At a court hearing today in Los Angeles, Ron Jeremy’s defense surprisingly asked the judge to break up the case involving 21 alleged victims of sexual assault into separate trials.
According to a report by Rolling Stone’s Michael Buckner, who attended the hearing, “the judge said he was ready to rule on Jeremy’s motion, filed Feb. 2, but prosecutors asked for more time to respond to the lengthy and novel severance request that seemed to catch them by surprise.”
The motion, Rolling Stone reports, argues Jeremy’s “right to due process will be violated if he’s forced into one umbrella trial for his long list of charges ranging from assaulting minors and drugging women for sex to forcible groping.”
Jeremy “moves to sever the allegations related to each individual Jane Doe, so that separate jury trials would result for each one of the Jane Does,” wrote his attorneys.
Twenty-One Accusations Against Ron Jeremy
XBIZ exclusively published a detailed account of the 21 accusations that form the Los Angeles County District Attorney's case against Jeremy, the only chronological, complete account of the testimonies given before the grand jury in August 2021.
Jeremy is currently awaiting trial in Los Angeles in jail, where he has remained following his arrest in June 2020.
After the August 2021 grand jury indictment was returned, Jeremy pled not guilty to 12 counts of forcible rape, seven counts of forcible oral copulation, six counts of sexual battery by restraint, four counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious or asleep person and one count each of lewd act upon a child under the age of 14 or 15, sodomy by use of force and assault with intent to commit rape.
Lawyers Condemn Prosecutorial Strategies
Last week’s motion also featured a condemnation by Jeremy’s counsel of prosecutorial strategies, questioning “the prosecution’s Nov. 8, 2021, briefing, replete with references to Harvey Weinstein, Rolling Stone magazine, YouTube, Daily Mail articles and [Jeremy]’s ‘oafish, goofball demeanor,’” by which they “the prosecution seeks to try [Jeremy] not only in this court but also in the court of public opinion.”
“Allowing [Jeremy]’s jury to hear about dozens of allegations of alleged misconduct will prevent his jurors from judging him fairly on each charged count and from scrupulously applying the burden of proof,” Jeremy’s lawyers claimed.
This was the first court appearance in the case by Kate Hardie, who joined Jeremy attorney Stuart Goldfarb late last year.
Judge George Lomeli postponed his ruling on the matter until a March 3 follow-up hearing, Rolling Stone reported.
