'Teen Mom' Star Amber Portwood Charged in Assault Against Former Fiance

By Sarah Crow Posted Nov 18th 2010 12:45PM

Talk about baby mama drama!

'Teen Mom' star Amber Portwood has been slapped with a misdemeanor and two felony charges related to three assaults on former fiance Gary Shirley, Hollywood Life reports.

Portwood's home state of Indiana considers domestic abuse in the presence of a child felonious assault, which was the case in two of Portwood's outbursts toward Shirley. The third attack occurred while the couple's baby, Leah, was elsewhere. There has been speculation that misdemeanor charges may be brought against the MTV camera crew who filmed the assault and failed to intervene, as Indiana law requires witnesses to domestic or child abuse to report the crime.

Portwood's abuse against Shirley, which occurred on July 14th, 18th, and August 14th of this year, was captured on film by MTV camera crews, although one of the incidents was never aired.

Amber, 20, who recorded a domestic violence PSA that aired on MTV following footage of the assaults, could serve up to three years in jail and pay $10,000 in fines if convicted.

Despite her on-camera compunction, Portwood has been vilified in her hometown paper, The Herald Bulletin, who had the following to say of the star: "'Teen Mom' is not the national image Anderson wants. The next time you see our teen mom in the store, point out that she is hurting this city. We don't push our loved ones down stairs. We don't take pride that our teenage girls are 16 and pregnant. We don't all drop out of high school."

Portwood, who expressed her regret over the assaults to Dr. Drew Pinsky on the 'Teen Mom' reunion show, alleged that she "blacked out" during the attack in which she punched Shirley multiple times, claiming to only remember striking him once.

MTV issued a statement regarding their involvement in the fight, saying "Our role in 'Teen Mom' is to document how incredibly challenging and difficult being a teen parent is. In this particular instance, we monitored the situation to make sure no one was in imminent danger."

The Madison County Prosecutor's office has subpoenaed MTV for all of their unedited 'Teen Mom' footage for evidence.

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Tags: 16 and pregnant, Amber Portwood, teen mom

Comments

(225)

Friday 19 November

By Adam Alan Bowles

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SHE SHOULD BE PUNISHED!!!

Thursday 18 November

By lerni

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If there is any justice to be had by our system she'll spend time in prison. Bad enough to act like that but if you choose to do it in front of camera crews you should expect to accept responsility for your actions. Is it too much to hope that other reality "stars" learn something from this?

By angela

Sad that the only one to benefit from this situation is the show's ratings. This young mom needs help not jail. The show's producers should have intervened when it happened but they wanted ratings. I hope she gets the help she needs. People need to step in and help when they see a problem and not try to make money off of a bad situation.

By Ron

I wonder if you would say the same thing if it was the boyfriend beating on her. Just curious.

By Barbs

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Why are these shows glorifying teenage pregnancy????

By MelJJ

They are not glorifying anything. They are "trying" (and I use the term loosely) to show the hardships of teen pregnancy. In no way, shape or form are they trying to give the impression that having a child at the age of 16 is easy or a good thing.

By barbie

This girl needs medications for some mental disorder. I wonder if she is the product of an alcoholic mother who drank during her pregnancy? Amber obviously grew up in a messed up family and these are the results of that.

By laughin@fools

good thats where this big butt ugly thing belongs such trash on tv anymore between this and dwts and the palin bs stock up on supplies america its going to collapse

By Sahema

In my mind, this girl lost weight and lost her mind along with it. Amber's behavior suggests someone who is abusing weight loss drugs (or drugs period)...jittery, bad temper, abusive, unable to concentrate. I'm not a doctor or in the medical field. I'm just saying. Chickie is in for a rude awakening if she pulls that stuff on other men. As quiet as it's kept, not all men allow a woman to beat on them. Amber needs to get help before she meets a degenerate like herself and he hurts her.

By airedalesblack

She;s still a baby herself

By karsim123

Are you implying that her age is an excuse for her actions?

By Southern

I am not saying her age gives her the right to act out, but it shows how she was raised. She is not mature enough to take care of the child, let alone herself. Yes, she is still a baby herself

By deniseatt

Why do they do reality shows about these total losers? It only makes them think they are important. Plus, do you really want your kids watching these shows and thinking this is "reality"?

By Amy

I understand that Amber was wrong and she should be charged for what she did to Gary, but my question is about Caitlyn and how her mom treats her. She mentally abuses her and calls her horrible names. Caitlyn has even admitted that she had to miss school because her mom was drunk and she had to stay home with her. So if they step in to protect Leah from Amber's physical and mental abuse towards Gary then why hasn't anyone stepped in to protect Caitlyn from the abuse she goes through?

By Kevin

What a shame for all of these kids on this show. Its no wonder why this country has so many pathetic people who expect everything to be given to them and show no sense of responsibility whatsoever. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for voting for Obama and bringing this mentality to the forefront.

WTF are you talking about???.....what does voting for Obama have to do with this??? These things would go on regardless of whos running this country.....

By Digi

What a bunch of power hungry bi*ches. Good god, I swear ANY WOMAN who holds their child as a TOOl to use against a man who wishes to participate in their life is a WASTE of life.

By speedsmart2

Why are these people in the news? Who cares about them? What kind of message does this send to young women.....get pregnant and get your own show? Send her to jail and let that beautiful baby get adopted.

By K

These are children with too much responsibilty being exploited, if this was an older adult I would agree but please remember that this is a child RAISING A CHILD, she's still having temper tantrums and in need of guidance not jail. This is the truth about children having children and what we as a society have to deal with when a teen has a baby. Teenagers are irresponsible, recklace and immature thats a Teenager! not a sucide bomber. and before everybody decides to condemn this child think about all the stupid and recklace crap you did before you became a responsible adult, i'm sure if your business was out in the open like hers is, we would all find some wonderful things to condemn you for too when you were that young.

By keira10103

Not every teen parent beats up and blows up at the other parent, nor do they neglect, ignore, yell, and missunderstand their new and huge responsibility a a parent. This girl Amber, is a nasty terrible mom, teen, 20, or 30. Her anger and neglect is the problem, and jail or not, the baby should never be under her care.

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