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HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - Former adult film star Ron Jeremy was found mentally incompetent Tuesday to stand trial on rape and other charges involving 21 alleged victims.
The ruling comes about 10 months after Jeremy -- whose real name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt -- was ordered to undergo a pair of psychiatric exams after one of his attorneys questioned his mental competency.
One of Jeremy's attorneys, Stuart Goldfarb, said in March 2022 that he had visited his client in a courtroom holding cell before the brief hearing.
"He was unable to determine who I was," Goldfarb said of his client, who had been awaiting trial before criminal proceedings were suspended in March 2022.
Jeremy pleaded not guilty in August 2021 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.
Prosecutors alleged that the crimes involving alleged victims ranging in age from 15 to 51 occurred over a 23-year span dating back to 1996.
They alleged that Jeremy raped a 19-year-old woman during an October 1996 photo shoot in the San Fernando Valley, a 26-year-old woman at a party in a nightclub in October 2000 and a 17-year-old girl at a Woodland Hills home in 2008.
He is also accused of sexually assaulting a young woman at a strip club in the City of Industry some time between 2002 and 2003, a 15-year-old girl in June 2004, a woman at his home in 2010 and a 38-year-old woman in January 2013 at a West Hollywood bar he frequented, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Jeremy was initially charged in January 2020 with sex-related counts involving four women, with prosecutors subsequently adding charges involving 19 other alleged victims.
The indictment involves 21 of those alleged victims. The other two alleged victims were not able to testify due to personal reasons, according to Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson.
Jeremy was arrested in June 2020 and has remained behind bars since then, according to jail records.
The case stemmed from a two-year investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation.