Based on numerous photos from his Instagram page, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is spending a lot of time with his daughter these days.
Which is a really good thing.
Because he may not be seeing her very much in the future.
Fans of the Jersey Shore: Family Vacation star may have thought that Ronnie was going to avoid any harsh legal penalties after the Los Angeles County District Attorney chose NOT to charge him with any felonies.
Instead, Ortiz-Magro was hit with numerous misdemeanor violations for his alleged actions early on the morning of October 4.
The veteran reality star and father of one is accused of threatening his girlfriend, Jen Harley, with a knife after the two got into a hellacious fight on that date.
He’s then accused of grabbing his young child out of Jen’s arms… locking himself inside of a house with the little girl… refusing to cooperate with the police upon their arrival… and needing to get tased in order to be taken into custody after the cops broke the door down.
Harley has said Ronnie was partly acting this way because he was high on cocaine at the time.
In response to the incident and arrest, Magro-Ortiz now faces seven charges:
- Willfully inflicting corporal injury to spouse or cohabitant.
- Brandishing a weapon.
- Willful and unlawful criminal threats.
- False imprisonment.
- Child endangerment.
- Two counts of Resisting arrest.
Yiles, right?!? What does all this mean for the MTV personality?
Simply put, the accumulation of charges means that Ronnie could wind up in prison — and not for a short period of time, either.
Five of the seven charges have a one-year maximum sentence and two have a six-month maximum sentence, totaling six years Ronnie could conceivably spend behind bars.
Will this actually happen?
We obviously have no way of knowing, but the odds of Ronnie receiving the maximum penalty for each charge seems impossibly low.
Still, this doesn’t mean the reality star is free and clear. Far from it, in fact.
There’s surveillance footage (from a neighbor’s camera) of Harley holding her child and running around looking all panicked on the morning in question.
There are marks on her arm she claims Ronnie gave her during the physical portion of their fight.
There’s a history of ugliness and violence between Harley and Ortiz-Magro that can’t exactly help Ronnie’s cause in the long run.
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro continues to break the law and set an awful example. Should he lose his job?
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In short, there are many reasons for authorities to push for at least some jail time for Ronnie.
Will he agree to a plea deal instead of seeing this case through to trial?
Will he be fired by MTV?
Will he and Jen actually stay broken up for a change?
These are all legitimate questions with no concrete answers at the moment.
All we can say for certain is that a source has defended Ronnie by arguing that Harley was the one placing the former couple’s kid in danger and that Ronnie was just trying to protect her.
His next court hearing is scheduled for November.