Several women have accused porn legend Ron Jeremy of sexual assault.
The allegations against Jeremy, which date back more than 30 years, gained traction when adult star Ginger Banks released a video in June 2017detailing several allegations of sexual misconduct against Jeremy from other adult stars, as well as fans.
“For over 40 years fans and fellow performers pay money and wait in long lines to meet me. They want autographs, pictures, to flirt with me, physically grab me in different areas (usually my clothed penis), they ask me to touch them and many ask to have me sign their boobs,” he told Rolling Stone in a statement. “When I take photos with fans and other performers at these conventions, signings or events, I do sometimes kiss people on the lips or the cheek, sign boobs or whatever they want. There is ‘put on’ flirting and touching for the photos. This is exactly what people pay me for at conventions … If you watch these videos that Ginger Banks put out of me ‘groping,’ you see that everyone in the videos is laughing and ‘groping’ too. That I’m not running up to them, they come to me.”
Former adult star Jennifer Steele accused Jeremy, 64, of raping her twice in 1997.
Jeremy reportedly told Steele that he booked a photo shoot for her in which she would simulate sex. Steele alleged that during the photoshoot, Jeremy told her he needed to look at her to prepare for the shoot and he allegedly assaulted her for the first time.
“It turned into him basically sticking it in without me knowing it was happening,” Steele alleged. “I said flat-out no … He doesn’t hear no. He just kinda keeps going and pretends like you didn’t say anything.”
Danica Dane accused Jeremy of sexually assaulting her at an expo in 2014; three other women (including adult film star Nina Hartley) confirmed that Dane had confided in them about the incident. Jeremy and another man who was in the room at the time of the alleged incident denied any non-consensual activity occurred.
Adult star Jay Taylor claimed that Jeremy digitally penetrated her while posing for a photo at an expo in 2013, which her boyfriend, who was taking the photo, confirmed. Jeremy denied the claim.
A journalist accused Jeremy of groping her breast and kissing her on the mouth without her consent at an expo in 2009; a co-worker present at the time of the alleged incident corroborated the journalist’s account of the events.
Another adult film star, Julia Ann, accused Jeremy of forcefully trying to give her a leg massage without her consent in 2011 at a Hedonism II convention in Jamaica. A colleague confirmed Ann had confided in him about the incident.
“I don’t fear him costing me work. He’s not in a position of power,” Ann explained. “What is more fearful to me and more upsetting to me is me saying something and everyone looking at me and going, ‘But that’s Ron.’”
None of the women named in Rolling Stone’s feature reported Jeremy’s alleged assaults to police or authorities, fearing that because they were involved in adult entertainment and pornography, they would not be believed or taken seriously, but two incidents allegedly involving Jeremy have been reported to police by fans.
In a 1997 incident, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, woman accused Jeremy of raping her after an appearance in a Ypsilanti, Michigan, strip club; a friend of the woman who was present at the time did not corroborate the accuser’s story and claimed that the encounter was consensual. No charges were ever filed, and Jeremy denied raping anyone.
In 2007, another woman accused Jeremy of groping and signing her breast without consent at an adult entertainment convention.
Several other women accused Jeremy of groping them without consent at adult entertainment conventions, an allegation Jeremy denied.
“As for the charges of Groping, I say yes, I AM A GROPER,” he wrote in an email to Rolling Stone. “And by groper, I mean I get paid to show up to these shows, events, and photo shoots and touch the people and they touch me. I’m not the young stud I was, but I still draw a crowd.”
Jeremy adamantly denied any and all allegations of sexual assault in a statement to Rolling Stone.
“I have never and would never rape anyone. All serious allegations have been investigated by police and dismissed by judges, as have most of the accusations of ‘groping,’” he wrote. “I have never been charged nor spent one day in court for any of this. And these are old allegations. Check, anything about me appearing in court or in jail, is public record … The police who looked into the groping charges have always said that they watch the video from the event or whatever and that I did nothing wrong or illegal. They then ask if I want to press charges against the people making false accusations. I never have.”
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