Former porn star Ron Jeremy will not face further court proceedings until he’s undergone a full mental health evaluation.
Jeremy, who’s been accused of multiple sex crimes, was too incoherent to participate in a key hearing at a Los Angeles court Thursday, reports USA Today.
Stuart Goldfarb, Jeremy’s lawyer, told Judge George Lomeli that his client appeared confused and did not recognize him when they met in the holding cell before the hearing.
“I was just up in the cell where he was being kept, and I tried to get his attention unsuccessfully,” Goldfarb told the judge, according to Rolling Stone.
“He was unable to determine who I was and wouldn’t accommodate both myself and the bailiff to fit into the wheelchair to come down here. I don’t think he should be forced to come down here under these circumstances.”
Jeremy, 69, who has appeared in more than 1,700 X-rated films since the 1970s, has been the subject of criminal allegations within the adult industry for years.
Last August, a grand jury indicted Jeremy on more than 30 counts of sexual assault involving 21 women and girls across more than two decades.
He has pleaded not guilty to all of the allegations, which include 12 counts of rape.
The indictment covers allegations dating from 1996 to 2019 with victims aged 15 to 51. The counts are nearly identical to charges filed against Jeremy in 2020, which he also denied.
The indictment includes allegations that Jeremy raped a 19-year-old woman during a photo shoot in 1996, raped a 26-year-old woman at a nightclub in 2003 and raped a 17-year-old girl at a home in 2008.
He is also charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 2004.
Lomeli agreed on Thursday to pause the criminal case against Jeremy and scheduled a mental health competency hearing for April.
According to the L.A. Times, Lomeli was supposed to rule on a defence motion to break Jeremy’s case into 21 separate trials — one for each accuser. His lawyers have argued that having all the accusers testifying at one trial would make a fair trial impossible.
— With files from The Associated Press