Ron Jeremy: Porn star charged with 20 new counts of sexual assault involving 13 victims

Performer has pleaded not guilty

Ron Jeremy appears for his arraignment at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on 26 June 2020, in Los Angeles. (David McNew/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Porn star Ron Jeremy has been charged with 20 new counts of sexual assault involving 12 women and a teenage girl.

Authorities in Los Angeles announced the new charges on Monday.

The news come two months after the 67-year-old Jeremy was charged with the rape of three women and the sexual assault of a fourth.

He pleaded not guilty to the new charges in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday morning, and had already denied the previous allegations.

Jeremy, whose legal name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, has been held in jail on $6.6m bail since June.

The new counts span 16 years, from 2004 to January of this year, when he is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman outside a business in Hollywood, the district attorney’s office said.

The charges include five counts of forcible rape and six counts of sexual battery by restraint. They also include an allegation that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at a party in 2004.

After the previous charges were filed, Jeremy’s attorney Stuart Goldfarb said he was “absolutely innocent”. The Independent has contacted Goldfarb for additional comment.

The combined counts could bring sentences of more than 250 years in prison.

Jeremy, nicknamed “The Hedgehog”, has been among the best known and most prolific performers in the adult film industry since the 1970s.

He was investigated and charged by a district attorney’s task force formed to take on sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry as the #MeToo era gained momentum in late 2017.

The Associated Press contributed to this report