Ron Jeremy is the latest celebrity to be called out for alleged sexual assault.
In a new Rolling Stone report, more than a dozen women came forward with accusations of impropriety spanning over 30 years.
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Actress Jennifer Steele claimed the 64-year-old raped her twice, once at a photo shoot and another time at his apartment, in December of 1997.
She told the mag of him allegedly cornering her in a bathroom:
“He was like, ‘I need to look at your ass so I can get hard for the photo shoot.’ Then it turned into him basically sticking it in without me knowing it was happening. I said flat-out no. It stopped, but it didn’t stop soon enough after I said no … During the whole photo shoot I was thinking, ‘Was I just raped? What the fuck just happened?’ [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 … He just kinda keeps going and pretends like you didn’t say anything.”
When asked why she didn’t report the crime, Steele replied:
“I was pretty promiscuous. I was a stripper. I couldn’t prove it.”
Adding:
“He hides behind other women’s scarlet letters, is what he does. [He] know[s] if someone’s a porn star and they say they’ve been raped, people aren’t gonna take it seriously.”
Another adult performer, Kendra Sunderland, said Jeremy sucked her breasts without permission at a Dallas expo in 2015:
“People expect this from him. If I went and got mad on Twitter, people would say, ‘That’s Ron.’ But if I said a fan did it, they’d say ‘That’s not OK, that’s crossing a line.'”
As you can probably imagine, it’s very difficult for sex workers to come forward with their stories considering the stigma and gray areas that are involved when it comes to being in the adult entertainment industry. Not to mention, sex workers who come forward are “likely to be blamed or disbelieved by law enforcement.”
With that said, Rolling Stone spoke with several people in the industry who said Jeremy’s behavior is not standard.
Popular performer Julia Ann said:
“I think Ron is an anomaly, and you’d be hard-pressed to say there’s any other person who’s been able to publicly sexually harass or assault people and get away with it. It’s one thing for someone to do it in their hotel room or their condo or their office or their car, but he can do it in the middle of a convention … When there are dollar signs involved, the lines [of consent] actually get drawn much more distinctly.”
In 2003, Jeremy was investigated for criminal sexual conduct after a fan alleged he held her down and raped her in his Michigan hotel room. Charges were not pressed.
Also in 2003, performer Ginger Lynn said Jeremy raped her while they were on location shooting a film in 1983.
In 2007, another fan told police the porn star reached inside her bra, pulled out her breast, and signed it without her permission at an expo in Miami. Jeremy told TMZ at the time:
“I probably signed about 150 boobs that weekend, all of which I sign ‘RJ’ with a heart.'”
There are just a handful of the many explosive accusations against Ron for years of abuse.
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In a statement to the magazine in response to the many allegations, Jeremy said in full:
“Let me first say, that I’m fully in support of the women and men who have been coming forward about being sexually assaulted. These real predators need to be taken down. My reputation is currently being smeared by these old allegations that have already been investigated and dismissed. However, I understand how social change works, and if my reputation has to get a bit tarnished along the way for the better treatment of women, and men, so be it. I will be there to support all people, men and women, that have bravely come forward to attack this systemic problem.
As for the allegations against me, these allegations have been online and in print for quite sometime. This is not new or breaking news. I’m shocked you guys are picking this up after it’s been reported on over and over by other publications and has been proven over and over to be false.
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”. 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. I was only arrested 20 years ago when I was fighting for Freedom Of Speech with Hal Freeman. 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.
As for the charges of Groping, I say yes, I AM A GROPER. 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. And we are talking about things that are within reason, in front of police officer’s and security that are always there as well as the tons of cameras And the general public. 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 CK, Weinstein, or Cosby.
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. 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. The female performers flirt and touch too. It’s what we do. 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.
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 hope that everyone reading this keeps in mind that I do tons of these conventions and adult signings. I take pictures with about 500,000 people each all over the world and have every year, for 40 years. These touching complaints are the exact same thing everyone else stood in line for. They couldn’t be happier.
I have never raped anyone. If anyone continues those claims, that is defamation. I will sue them in court.
I’m not saying that I never met these people or interacted with them. I don’t remember most of them, how could I? I may have seen hundreds people on those days. A girl said that I took her into a back room at a convention? Now this I remember. No one pushed anyone anywhere, she and a girl friend of hers asked if they could come in to the back tent with me. “Back room” was actually a small tent where the performers went to relax and eat crafty. There were seven other people in the small tent including security guard. And we took some sexy photos with each other as people looked on or looked at their phones. If I did anything wrong, that security guard who works for the convention, would have taken me down and called the police. And 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?
I am very happy that the scum bags of the earth are being taken down. They deserve it. But these allegations are pure lies or buyers remorse. In 40 years, I’ve never been punched by a boyfriend or anyone ever.
I have been heartbroken over these allegations. Not because it affects me or my business, I can take that, but because they are lies and there are actual women and men out there Who have been victims of serious sexual assault, and so on, that are trying to get their voices heard.
Again, It does bother me that there might be women out there that had some buyers remorse after our interactions. But I did nothing wrong or out of the ordinary for these conventions or events. These events are supposed to be a fun time. That video that Ginger Banks made looks like a pro Ron Jeremy video if you turn off the sound. Everyone in the videos is having fun with me.
This really is a non-story. However I’m glad I had a chance to speak my side.”
Thoughts??? SOUND OFF in the comments (below)!
[Image via WENN.]
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