LOS ANGELES — A defense lawyer for longtime adult industry performer Ron Jeremy asked a judge for more time to prepare his case, at a preliminary hearing on Monday morning. Jeremy is facing 35 charges of sexual assault and misconduct against 23 different women. Defense attorney Stuart Goldfarb told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jose I. Sandoval that he needed the names of those accusers to adequately defend Jeremy, Goldfarb confirmed when asked by AVN.com Monday.
The charges against Jeremy include 11 counts of forcible rape.
Prosecutors immediately opposed Goldfarb’s request, saying that under rules governing sexual assault cases, protecting the safety of alleged victims takes precedence over normal discovery rules — meaning that the names of Jeremy’s accusers should remain under seal.
Sandoval granted the continuance until January 11, 2021, allowing Goldfarb time to ready his answer to the prosecution’s objections.
At his most recent hearing on October 28, Jeremy was hit with seven counts, including “three counts of forcible rape, two counts of forcible oral copulation and one count each of sexual battery by restraint and assault with intent to commit forcible digital penetration."
Those charges came after prosectors added 20 new counts on August 31, on top of an initial eight counts in July. He has entered “not guilty” pleas to all of the charges.
Though the names of the alleged victims have not been made available even to Jeremy’s lawyer, prosecutors say that the youngest accuser is 15 years old, while the oldest is 38. The alleged incidents date back to 1996, with the most recent occurring earlier in 2020
Prosecutors also say they had an additional 14 accusations against Jeremy but could not bring charges because the statute of limitations had expired on those alleged offenses.
In addition to the criminal charges that have him sitting in Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles on $6.6 million bail, Jeremy also faces a civil lawsuit from Charity Carson, a former friend who alleges that Jeremy sexually assaulted her at the Highland Gardens Hotel in Hollywood, California, on May 4 of this year.
