LOS ANGELES — The judge overseeing the Ron Jeremy criminal case has granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the case after expert findings that the former performer is “not presently dangerous,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has confirmed to XBIZ.
News of the closing of the case — without a jury trial to establish Jeremy’s guilt or innocence in multiple cases of sexual assault and rape — first surfaced through gossip news site The Blast last week. The site claimed to have seen “exclusive documents” regarding the dismissal.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office stated via email, “On March 20, 2024, the mental health courthouse judge refused the People’s request for a Murphy Conservatorship due to the expert findings that the defendant is not presently dangerous. On March 26, the People requested that the case remain open under Penal Code section 1370(d), but the judge refused that request and granted the defense’s request to dismiss the case. As a result, the case is complete with no future court dates. The defendant remains on a probate conservatorship.”
XBIZ contacted Jeremy’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, who commented, “I expected the dismissal as he had cognitive issues the last two years.”
One of the alleged victims told XBIZ she had not been contacted by the DA’s office to inform her of the dismissal of the case. The DA had previously regularly updated the Jane Doe plaintiffs on all important developments.
Jeremy Now a Free Man, Under a Conservatorship
At a Nov. 31 mental health hearing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Harrison granted a petition by Jeremy’s conservator to release him from the county jail system and place him in a private residence to receive around-the-clock medical care.
Jeremy’s release followed a January 2023 court decision declaring him incompetent to stand trial. The judge considered medical reports by the defense and by the prosecution. Both reports agreed that Jeremy suffers from an “incurable neurocognitive decline.”
Judge 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.”
Jeremy had 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 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.
