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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Criminal proceedings for adult film star Ron Jeremy, who is facing rape and other charges involving 21 alleged victims, were suspended today after one of his attorneys questioned his mental competency.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli ordered the 69-year- old Jeremy to undergo a pair of psychiatric exams, with an April 19 status hearing set to review the results of those exams.
One of Jeremy's attorneys, Stuart Goldfarb, told the judge 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 was not in the courtroom.
A hearing had been set on the defense's motion seeking ``separate individual trials for each named complaining witness.'' The prosecution filed court papers objecting to the request, countering that the defendant ``preyed on victims that were vulnerable and unable to fight back'' and that the alleged crimes were ``connected by a common plan.''
Jeremy -- whose real name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt -- pleaded not guilty last August 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 say the crimes involving alleged victims ranging in age from 15 to 51 occurred over a 23-year span dating back to 1996.
They allege 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 in lieu of $6.6 million bail, 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.