TACOMA – Ron Jeremy, who has been subject to multiple groping allegations over the years, is now facing a lawsuit over a series of incidents which allegedly took place at an appearance he made at a promotional event last September.
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a model named Kristin Brodie filed the complaint, in which she alleges Jeremy (real name Ronald Jeremy Hyatt) assaulted her four times on September 22, 2017, while she was working as a “Rock Girl” for the Seattle-based radio station KISW at an event hosted at a Castle Megastore adult shop.
Brodie alleges the first assault took place when Jeremy offered to sign each of the Rock Girls’ breasts. Brodie agreed (part of maintaining “an atmosphere of fun” according to her complaint), thinking he would sign her breast on the skin exposed above the collar of her shirt.
Instead, Brodie’s suit asserts, Jeremy pulled down the model’s shirt, reached under her bra and forcibly grabbed her breast.
Brodie alleges when she later took a selfie with Jeremy, he spun her around, placed his hand between her legs and sucked on the back of her neck. According to the Post-Intelligencer, a third party tried to intervene, but Jeremy reportedly said “I’ll be done in a sec” several times and penetrated Brodie with his fingers, right through her underwear.
“Did that give you goosebumps?” Jeremy allegedly asked.
Finally, when Brodie attempted to leave the store to get away from Jeremy, he allegedly asked her “May I say goodbye?” He then allegedly pulled down her shirt and bra, stuck his face between her breasts and put his mouth over her nipple.
In an interview with KOMO NewsRadio, Jeremy’s attorney Stuart Goldfarb vigorously denied that Jeremy touched Brodie’s genitals.
“He absolutely denies that,” Goldfarb said. “He didn’t put his finger into her.”
Goldfarb conceded that lots of touching takes place at the promotional events in which Jeremy participates, but characterized it all as “consensual.”
“Woman often line up and there’s mutual touching,” Goldfarb said, echoing things Jeremy has said in his own defense in the past. “He in many cases autographs their breast and it’s consensual. I don’t know if he pulled her shirt down, but I know that he may have touched her breast, he may have kissed her on the back of her neck and he’s been doing this for 40 years and has never had a problem.”
Goldfarb added that Brodie “came back after she said he touched her and was doing a selfie with him” and that “if in fact it she felt it was inappropriate, she should have said something and believe me, he wouldn’t have touched her.”
While Brodie is identified only by her initials in the lawsuit, her attorney, Anne Bremner, said Brodie wants to be publicly identified. She also said Brodie has suffered from post-traumatic stress since the day of the alleged assaults.
“It’s just been really difficult for her,” Bremner said. “No matter what you are, who you are, what you do, you do not deserve to be victimized.”
Bremner added that she still believes Jeremy should be charged with a crime and said there are witnesses and surveillance footage which can help verify her client’s claims.
Officials for both the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the Tacoma City Attorney’s Office confirmed they previously declined to file charges against Jeremy. According to the Post-Intelligencer, a spokeswoman for the Tacoma Police Department said the TPD forwarded the case to Pierce County, which then declined to file charges and forwarded the case to the Tacoma Municipal Court.
The Tacoma City Attorney’s Office has declined to comment on their decision not to prosecute Jeremy, other than to confirm they opted to not file charges in the case.
