The arrest of Teen Mom OG dad Ryan Edwards earlier this week came as a huge surprise to many, but even more surprising was the fact that the arrest was for a probation violation stemming from a previous heroin possession arrest that no one knew anything about. Thanks to a local news station, we are finally getting some details about the initial arrest.
According to WRCB, Ryan was arrested on March 12, 2017. “A police report says Edwards officers found needles and 1.8 grams of heroin in an open backpack during a traffic stop in Red Bank,” WRCB reports.
The March 12 arrest contradicts a statement made by Ryan’s wife Mackenzie Edwards after his arrest earlier this week. “Possession of heroin was the original charge from April before he went to rehab,” Mackenzie said.
Whether the arrest was April or March, it also creates a conflicting timeline with Mackenzie’s previous statements from her “open letter” to Maci McKinney, which she infamously read aloud on last season’s Teen Mom OG Reunion with Dr. Drew. “I had only known about it for two days before Ryan was walking into treatment,” Mackenzie said of Ryan’s drug problem in her letter.
Ryan reportedly entered a rehab facility on May 16. That was one day after his “secret” wedding, which we were the first to report took place on May 15. If Ryan’s arrest was on March 12, then Mackenzie’s Reunion timeline is even further off and would mean that in order for it to be true, Ryan would have had to keep his arrest a secret from her for two months!
Regardless, the revised timeline looks like this:
March 12 – Ryan pulled over by police and arrested after they find needles and 1.8 grams of heroin in an open backpack
May 15 – Ryan and Mackenzie have an impromptu wedding, at which Ryan was clearly high
May 16 – Ryan checks into a rehab facility in Texas
This timeline suggests that Ryan agreed to some sort of deal that avoided any jail time if he agreed to enter a rehab program. You may recall that he left the program after 21 days — is that a standard time frame for court-ordered attendance? Regardless, I’m guessing that Ryan received a suspended sentence and was placed on probation, which he violated earlier this month.
UPDATE – We now know a little more about why Ryan’s 2017 arrest remained under the radar, including an eyebrow-raising, receipt-laden conspiracy theory! Click here for all the latest.
I still believe the wedding was some sort of concession by Ryan to make peace, or to acquiesce to an ultimatum by Mackenzie — but that is purely speculation. CLEARLY there was some reason that the couple felt like the HAD TO get married before Ryan went to rehab. There is simply no other reason to go through with it given Ryan’s condition at the time. And speaking of his condition, how in the world was his marriage even legitimate given that he didn’t appear to be of sound mind enough to make that sort of decision?
Also, I cannot imagine that MTV was not aware of his arrest and the fact that he was using drugs, so that puts them in the spotlight yet again for filming all of those terrfyingly dangerous scenes of Ryan driving while so high that he could barely stay awake.
On another note, there have been recent reports that Ryan has moved back in with his parents Jen and Larry, including a couple of blurry photos of Ryan and his truck at their house. I can’t verify if this is the case, but I can verify that the online records for his most recent arrest on Tuesday list his address as that of his parents.
TMZ’s law enforcement sources told them that “the 30-year-old was busted Tuesday at his house in Tennessee when cops executed a warrant for violating probation.” TMZ is pretty notorious for not stressing too much about details, however, so it could be that Ryan was served at his parents’ house because that was the address police had for him.
In case you missed it, the latest fallout from Ryan’s arrest has come in the form of his ex Maci McKinney filing for an order of protection against him in which she lists all three of her children: Bentley, Jayde, and Maverick. As I mention in that post, I am guessing this is an intervention-esque tactic to motivate Ryan to re-enter rehab, but that is purely speculation on my part once again.
I believe we will be getting word soon that Ryan has elected to check himself back into rehab. If not, then I don’t want to even think about how bad things are right now for the Edwards (and McKinney) families.
[Ed. note: When the post was originally published, a couple of the dates in the timeline were listed incorrectly as March instead of May. Those were corrected within minutes, but I apologize for any confusion.]
