LOS ANGELES — Ron Jeremy is currently the subject of a probate conservatorship, following the Jan. 2023 decision by a Los Angeles judge to declare him incompetent to stand trial for multiple cases of sexual assault and rape.
A spokesperson at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office confirmed the conservatorship to XBIZ on Wednesday, as well as that Jeremy's situation will be reviewed later this month.
As XBIZ reported, in March, Jeremy’s sister, Susan Billotte, filed a petition asking the judge in the case to appoint attorney Ellen Finkelberg as Jeremy’s conservator, and for her to be given authority to make decisions regarding the former adult performer’s finances and health care.
“He has been found incompetent to stand trial in a criminal case due to a diagnosis with symptoms of Lewy body dementia and has a pending transfer to a state hospital,” the petition explained, urging the judge to appoint a conservator to help with Jeremy’s transfer to a “private secured perimeter facility specializing in treatment of dementia.”
Wednesday’s statement by the DA’s office to XBIZ is the first confirmation that Jeremy was indeed placed under a probate conservatorship sometime between March and August.
In May, Jeremy’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, told XBIZ that the case has been postponed until November. At the time, Goldfarb said that Jeremy was still at Patton State Hospital, a forensic psychiatric hospital in San Bernardino.
What is a 'probate conservatorship'?
A probate conservatorship is a type of conservatorship under California Probate Code section 1800 that, according to jurisprudence, is usually imposed “when it is established that the conservatee is unable to provide properly for his or her personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.”
Probate conservatorships “may be ordered upon the application of relatives or friends of the conservatee, rather than only upon the application of the public guardian.”
In Los Angeles County, probate conservatorships are handled by the Probate Department.
This specific type of conservatorship gained increased public attention in the last few years due to the controversy over singer Britney Spears being under one for over a decade.
In most jurisdictions, an American Bar Association report titled “Persons Living with Dementia and the Criminal Justice System” explains, “when a person is found unable to stand trial, the defendant is automatically committed to a mental hospital for ‘restoration of capacity.’ The very nature of a progressive dementia like Alzheimer’s disease is that restoration is impossible. We heard repeatedly of persons with dementia being sent back and forth between mental hospitals, jail and court hearings.”
The California legislature amended the probate code so that “a person with a major neurocognitive disorder, as defined in the last published edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, should have a conservatorship to serve the person’s unique and special needs.”
The legislature added powers to the probate conservatorship for people with major neurocognitive disorders, so that “their unique and special needs can be met.”
Most Likely 'Not Restorable'
In January, when Judge Robert S. Harrison ruled that Jeremy was not competent to be tried for the multiple counts of rape and sexual assault alleged against him, the judge considered two medical reports, by the defense and the prosecution. Both reports agreed that Jeremy suffers from an “incurable neurocognitive decline.”
Harrison also explained that both medical reports indicated that Jeremy “would most likely not be restorable.”
Jeremy has remained in custody, either at the Men’s County Jail or at a county medical facility, since his arrest in June 2020.
After an 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.
In Nov. 2021, XBIZ published a detailed account of the 21 accusations that form the Los Angeles County district attorney’s case against Jeremy. It remains the only comprehensive journalistic account of the testimonies given before the grand jury.
For more of XBIZ’s coverage of the Ron Jeremy case, click here.
