Last week, 90 Day Fiance: Before The 90 Days star Ben Rathbun was arrested.
Though this franchise is no stranger to arrests, this is much more unusual while a season is actively airing.
Less than one week later, Ben was sentenced.
Even though Ben recently reunited with Mahogany, this could put a damper on his future with the show.
Starcasm got a look at Michigan court records.
He was ordered to spend 2 days in jail, though the court credited him with time served for his time behind bars following his arrest.
Ben was also instructed to complete 15 days of community service, and his probation was extended until 2023.
All things considered, that is a generous sentence, sparing Ben from any further time behind bars.
We know that this is a complicated situation, and some fans expressed confusion over what exactly had gotten him arrested.
With that in mind, we will lay out what happened as clearly as possible, and in an orderly fashion.
On September 16, 2020, some sort of incident took place that led to Ben facing an OWAI charge.
In November of 2020, Ben was charged with driving under the influence and with a suspended/revoked license.
Ben eventually entered a guilty plea to the lesser OWAI charge, getting the suspended license charge dismissed.
In January of 2021, following his plea, Ben was sentenced to 18 months of probation.
That would have extended until this summer, and then come to a tidy end.
However, this is not what happened.
Ben was due for a probation hearing on February 7, 2022.
By this point, it was months after he had filmed with Mahogany in Peru, and Season 5 was already underway.
He was reportedly accused of violating his probation, though the details of that are unclear.
For reasons unknown (but theorized), Ben was a no-show to his own February 7 hearing.
As a result, the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
That arrest was carried out on Tuesday, March 15.
As succinctly as humanly possible, Ben broke the law driving in September of 2020 and allegedly violated the terms of his plea deal.
The result isn’t so bad.
Time served, some community service, and another six months added to his probation.
Court records show that Ben’s probation will end on January 25, 2023.
Hopefully, he will complete all of the court’s requests of him.
Driving violations can be dangerous and potentially deadly, but we would hate for someone’s life to be ruined unless they do something that is, well, evil.
But what, fans have spent the past week or so wondering, did Ben do to violate his probation?
We have heard no reports of additional charges, driving-related or otherwise.
However, the evidence of alleged probation violation may be staring us all in the face every Sunday.
It is not actually impossible to leave the country while on probation, but many such situations require that the person on probation receive prior approval to do so.
Perhaps Ben sought it and did not receive it. Perhaps it didn’t occur to him that he needed permission.
Whatever the reason, some wonder if Ben’s trip to Peru to see Mahogany last year is what landed him in trouble.
If so, that could be what had him summoned to a hearing — possibly after a court officer or even a snitch reported him.
In fact, a second trip to Peru, as he was seen with Mahogany in February of this year (many months after Season 5 filmed) could explain why he missed the February 7 hearing.
Hard to make it to a hearing for leaving the country if you have once again left the country.
This is all speculation, and it’s possible that Ben did not get into trouble for visiting Peru. We just don’t know.
However, given his precarious legal situation, it seems unlikely that he will be given permission to leave the country for the rest of this year.
If Ben wasn’t filming a new season with Mahogany in February, he may miss his change for a comeback to the franchise … if such an offer were ever on the table.
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