Police had to break down the front door of reality television star Elizabeth Vargas’ Newport Beach home during the Tuesday arrest of an armed man who was barricaded inside.
Los Angeles resident Ryan Matthew Geraghty, 33, now faces multiple felony charges after he threatened to kill a former girlfriend after extorting money from her, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
The victim has since been identified as Vargas, star of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” who briefly dated Geraghty, by her manager, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Beginning on Christmas Eve 2021, Geraghty is accused of beginning to extort money from the woman in exchange for not selling nude photos of her to the media,” the District Attorney’s office said.
When Vargas refused to provide more money, Geraghty punched her in the face, held her at gunpoint and threatened to kill her, according to the DA.
He also forced her to buy him a BMW and shot a gun into the ceiling during a Jan. 31 argument, the day before he returned to point the gun at the victim’s face and threatened to kill her, the release added.
Geraghty, who was arrested by the Newport Beach Police Department on Tuesday, faces multiple criminal charges, including “one felony count of extortion by force or threat, one felony count of assault with a firearm, one felony count of criminal threats, one felony count of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, one felony count of grossly negligent discharge of a firearm, one felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon and two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance,” the release said.
“He has also been charged with two felony enhancements of personally using a firearm and an enhancement under Penal code section 1203e4 that prohibits a judge [from] offering him probation as a result of his violent record,” the DA’s office said, adding that Geraghty already has two strikes under the state’s Three Strikes law.
Geraghty previously pleaded guilty or no contest to charges of burglary, being a felon in possession of a firearm, being in possession of ammunition and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“There are some members of our society who are so violent that they cannot live among the rest of us,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “California’s Three Strikes Law was designed to protect law-abiding residents from being subjected to a never-ending campaign of violence by individuals who have no respect for the law and no respect for human life. Thankfully the Newport Beach Police Department prevented serious harm from coming to this woman and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office will do everything it can to prevent this violent criminal from being able to harm anyone else.”
If convicted on all counts, Geraghty could face a maximum of 75 years and four months to life in prison.
