The “star” of the MTV reality television show, Teen Mom, Amber Portwood has been charged with a pair of felony counts and a misdemeanor count for domestic violence and battery stemming for a pair of incidents against Gary Shirley.

Gary Shirley became a high-profile male victim of domestic violence when Amber Portwood assaulted him on at least three separate occasions.  One incident was televised.  Another was not and only come to light when the raw footage was subject to being turned over when the authorities subpoenaed the raw footage of the show.  It was only then that the evidence of the second incident of domestic violence was discovered.

Amber Portwood delivered her domestic violence assault on Gary Shirley, the father of their child, Leah, during the summer months between June and August of 2010.  Why it has taken several months before Amber Portwood is charged is not clear, but we surmise that the clear and convincing evidence left authorities with little choice than to move against the teen mom with felony domestic violence charges on November 18th, 2010.

From the article, which also includes several still shots of the assaults:

Under Indiana law, an incident of domestic abuse is considered a felony if a child is present for the abuse — which baby Leah was in both cases. Interestingly, one of the two felonies is based on footage never aired by MTV.

If convicted of her felony domestic violence charges, Amber Portwood is facing a maximum of 3 years in jail and fines totaling as much as $10,000.

In today’s domestic violence climate, where women are almost exclusive treated as “the victim” and men are almost exclusively treated as perpetrators, this high-profile case is just one of hundreds-of-thousands which occur annually.  If you look at the photographs, Gary Shirley is a sizable man (link at the end of this article).  Amber Portwood is quite clearly smaller than him.  Yet, she shows absolutely no fear as she unleashes her assault upon the father of their child, and does so in the youngster’s presence.  This is just one small example that “size doesn’t matter” when it comes to domestic violence.  Female perpetrators of domestic violence know all-too-well that even if a man is simply defending himself, that’s all that needs to occur for him to go to jail and be separated from his children.  Sometimes, the male doesn’t even have to do anything and he’s still at great risk of incarceration for domestic violence himself.  Our guess is that explains why Gary Shirley barely makes an attempt to defend himself from her blows.  It also explains why countless reputable studies show that women are equally likely as men (if not, moreso) to initiate domestic violence (see: Domestic Violence Myths & Realities).

Time will tell how severely she is punished for violent crimes committed against Gary Shirley in front of their child.  We guess she’ll face very little punishment and will still retain primary custody of the child.  Make no mistake about this – if the roles were reversed in this situation, it most certainly wouldn’t have taken many months for Gary Shirley to be arrested and we’re fairly certain he would be waiting a very, very long time before ever getting to see his child again.

For more details and to see snapshots of the assault, see the full article by clicking here: ‘Teen Mom’ Amber Charged With Two Felonies & One Misdemeanor For Domestic Violence & Battery! Exclusive!

See also: Dr. Phil’s Domestic Violence Silence