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.
After all, he may not be seeing her very much in the future.
Fans of the Jersey Shore legend 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 and locking himself inside of a house with the little girl...
... and 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.
Yeah. Not good. What does it 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.
That makes a total of 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.
It would be unlikely in any case, and there's likely enough dispute over what happened for Ron to negotiate some of that down.
Still, this doesn't mean the reality star is free and clear. Far from it, in fact. His lawyers have an uphill battle ahead of them.
There's surveillance footage (from a neighbor's camera) of Harley holding her child and running around looking panicked on the morning in question.
There are marks on her arm that she claims Ronnie gave her during the physical portion of their fight that night at the L.A. Airbnb.
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.
In short, there are many reasons for authorities to argue that the charges are more than warranted, and to push for some jail time.
Will he agree to a plea deal instead of seeing this case through to trial?
Will he be fired by MTV in the aftermath of this reign of terror?
Will he and Jen actually stay broken up for a change?
These are all very 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.
A dubious claim to say the least, but the judicial system will have the last word.
His next court hearing is scheduled for November.
If we were Ron, we'd suggest rehab and/or anger management training in the meantime if he wants a judge to look favorably upon his future - for Ariana Sky's sake if not his own.
#truth