An L.A. County Superior Court judge has released a former porn star accused of dozens of sexual assaults in a series of allegations stretching back decades.
Ron Jeremy Hyatt has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial due to his inability to assist in his own defense, after his longtime attorney and friend Stuart Goldfarb raised the issue claiming his client didn’t always recognize him.
A community outcry ensued late last year when it was learned that a judge was planning to release Hyatt — who’s alleged to have more than 20 victims, including a 15-year-old Santa Clarita girl assaulted during a 2004 house party — to home care.
The DA’s office sought a hearing on the judge’s motion Nov. 30, but ultimately, Hyatt “was released into the care of his probate conservator on Dec. 13,” according to an email from Venusse Dunn, spokeswoman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office. “The case remains on calendar for (Jan. 25) for update on the public guardian investigation into a Murphy Conservatorship for the defendant.”
A Murphy Conservatorship can be arranged when a person is suffering from a “grave disability,” according to the Disability Rights California website.
A grave disability “can also mean that a person has been mentally incompetent under Section 1370 of the California Penal Code,” according to the DRC, and that the charges facing the suspect could pose a threat to the public.
Hyatt’s attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, said last year it was a shame he wouldn’t get to argue the facts of the case in court, maintaining his client’s innocence in a phone interview.
“Two years ago, when he was first arrested, I believed he was innocent, and over the next two years, when I had seen more discovery,” Goldfarb said, “I still believe that he was innocent.”
Goldfarb, who said he’s known Hyatt for about 40 years, began to see issues he associated with the “normal aging” process roughly two and a half years ago when the case began, but more recently it became apparent he was having difficulties.
A grand jury returned an indictment against the 70-year-old Hyatt on Aug. 19, 2021, alleging he had more than 20 victims.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson.
