LOS ANGELES — An LA County judge in the Hollywood mental health courthouse granted on Thursday a petition by Ron Jeremy’s conservator to release him to a private residence.
The hearing confirmed the news reported by the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 20, which originated in leaked emails sent to alleged victims by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.
In the latest development following the January 2023 decision by a Los Angeles judge to declare him incompetent to stand trial for multiple cases of sexual assault and rape, Jeremy will be released from the county jail system and placed in a private residence to receive around-the-clock medical care.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Harrison said Jeremy “would be monitored at all times by a male caregiver at his new residence, and would be barred from leaving the premises,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “The judge said he could not keep Jeremy in jail any longer as he is incapable of being restored to competency and has not been convicted of a crime.”
In August, a spokesperson for the DA’s office confirmed to XBIZ that Jeremy was the subject of a probate conservatorship, following a March request by Jeremy’s sister, Susan Billotte, to appoint attorney Ellen Finkelberg as 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.”
'Incurable Neurocognitive Decline'
In January, 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 medical reports by the defense and by the prosecution. Both reports agreed that Jeremy suffers from an “incurable neurocognitive decline.”
Jeremy has remained in custody, either at the Men’s County Jail or at a county medical facility, since his arrest in June 2020. In May, Jeremy’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, told XBIZ that Jeremy was at Patton State Hospital, a forensic psychiatric hospital in San Bernardino.
After an August 2021 grand jury indictment was returned, Jeremy pleaded 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 November 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.
