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 2017 detailing several allegations of sexual misconduct against Jeremy from other adult stars, as well as fans.
Jeremy didn’t take Banks’ campaign against him lightly.
“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.”
However, Jeremy was accused of more than groping.
Former adult star Jennifer Steele accused Jeremy, 64, of raping her twice in 1997.
“He started off being really handsy,” Steele told Rolling Stone in a feature released Wednesday. “That was one of the things I looked back at being like, ‘I should’ve known.'”
Jeremy reportedly told Steele that he booked a photoshoot 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.”
‘He doesn’t hear no. He just kinda keeps going and pretends like you didn’t say anything.’
- Jennifer Steele
“During the whole photo shoot I was thinking, ‘Was I just raped? What the f—k just happened?'” Steele recalled. “[But] by the time the shoot was done, I had it in my head that I had somehow exaggerated it and it was an honest mistake.”
As a result, Steele says she agreed to stay at Jeremy’s apartment that night, but claims she told him she had a boyfriend and wouldn’t consent to any sexual activity with Jeremy and that he raped her again that night.
“This was after so many times of saying no and realizing that wasn’t gonna work,” Steele alleged, adding that she confronted him the next day. “I went completely livid. I broke down.”
Jeremy denied the allegations, telling the magazine, “Why would she decide to go to her rapist’s home? Give me a f—king break. It is just not true.”
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.'”
Jeremy dismissed Ann’s claim, telling Rolling Stone, “Someone claimed that in Hedonism in Jamaica, which is a nudist swingers resort, I tried to massage their leg years ago? Why is this even in an article?”
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 an 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.”
He added, “But seriously, if you were going to be around Ron Jeremy, wouldn’t you assume that I’d be a little bit touchy feely? Yes. This is what I do for a living. I am not Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., Weinstein, or Cosby … If anyone was ever made to feel uncomfortable by ANY of our interactions, I’m deeply sorry. That was never my intention and it breaks my heart in half … I have never raped anyone. If anyone continues those claims, that is defamation. I will sue them in court.”