Jen Harley appeared before a judge in Los Angeles at Ronnie Ortiz-Magro’s court hearing on Tuesday, February 11, in the Jersey Shore: Family Vacation star’s domestic violence case, Us Weekly exclusively confirms.
Ortiz-Magro’s attorney, Leonard B. Levine, attended the pre-trial conference in his client’s place. Levine asked the judge for more time to gather additional information, including reports from prior incidents. He also revealed that Ortiz-Magro, 34, is currently taking domestic violence counseling in Nevada. As a result, the judge agreed to continue the hearing on March 13.
“We want to resolve this and do what’s best for their child,” Levine told Us on Tuesday, referencing the on-off couple’s 22-month-old daughter, Ariana.
During the hearing, Deputy City Attorney Heidi Matz asked the judge to order Ortiz-Magro to stop contacting Harley, 32, who arrived at court with her attorney, Lisa Bloom, another lawyer, Teri Gibbs, and a representative from the L.A. City Attorney’s Family Violence Unit.
“The victim is in court, and she was contacted by the defendant at the end of the year … and he sent her many texts,” Matz claimed. “They did see each other and there was an incident in Nevada that I have no jurisdiction over. However, prior communications are illegal. We want the defendant to knock it off. … We want it to stop.”
The MTV personality’s attorney, Levine, then assured the court that “there will be no contact.”
After the hearing, Bloom told Us that she and Harley “are very pleased that today the judge put on the record that Mr. Ortiz is in violation of the restraining order and admonished his attorney for him to stop it and to knock it off, which he should.”
Bloom applauded Harley for being “strong and … demanding justice.” She added, “We are going to keep coming back until we get justice, and I am very proud to stand with Jen today.”
Harley, for her part, told Us, “It’s been hard. I’m just ready to get everything over with so him and I can coparent peacefully, and I’m just over the drama.”
The news comes one month after Ortiz-Magro’s attorneys claimed to Us that he had been granted an emergency order for protection against Harley after she “entered his home while he was sleeping and started viciously assaulting him” on January 11. Harley’s attorney, Bloom, however, insisted that her client never “received any restraining order against her.”
The pair have had a volatile relationship since they started dating in 2017. Harley was infamously arrested for domestic battery in June 2018 after dragging the reality star with her car; the case was later dismissed due to insufficient evidence. More recently, in October 2019, Ortiz-Magro was arrested on a kidnapping charge, which led to Harley getting an emergency protective order against him. He was charged with seven misdemeanor counts and pleaded not guilty in November.
With reporting by Marjorie Hernandez
