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The ex-boyfriend of a reality TV star who appeared in Real Housewives of Orange County was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday for holding her hostage and threatening to kill her.
Ryan Geraghty, 34, was arrested in February 2022 after a two-hour standoff with police at the Newport Beach home of Elizabeth Lyn Vargas.
Prosecutors said Geraghty, of Los Angeles, began blackmailing Vargas on Christmas Eve 2022, forcing her to pay tens of thousands of dollars to prevent him from releasing nude photos of her.
He also allegedly forced her to buy him a BMW.
When she stopped paying him, he went to her house with a gun, and fired a shot into the ceiling during a row.
Police were called for a welfare check and a standoff ensued.
Ryan Geraghty is seen in court in Orange County on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to attacking his former girlfriend, Elizabeth Lyn Vargas
Geraghty, who had previous convictions for burglary and firearm possession, was sentenced to six years in jail
Vargas was on the Real Housewives of Orange County for one season. Geraghty (right) was arrested at her home in February 2022
Geraghty was charged with single counts of extortion; assault with a firearm; criminal threats; corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant’ possession of a firearm by a felon and grossly negligent discharge of a firearm, Deadline reported.
He was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Geraghty plead guilty on Tuesday, and was sentenced immediately.
Vargas, after the hearing, posted on Instagram: ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’
Vargas was featured on only one season – season 15, which ran from October 2020 to January 2021.
On the show she detailed her dark past growing up in a cult that was run by her grandmother.
Before the series began, she was married to American Seafoods CEO Bernt O. Bodal.
Security camera footage from her house shows the moment Geraghty threatened to kill her, moments before a SWAT team arrived at the house.
SWAT teams descended on the star’s Newport Beach home in February after Geraghty stormed the property with a gun
Vargas appeared on one season of Real Housewives of Orange County, from October 2020 to January 2021
Footage taken on a Ring camera shows him pacing through her home with a gun in hand, threatening to take her ‘out’ and then kill others.
‘I’m taking you out, and then everybody else. They can shoot me if they want. I don’t give a f**k anymore, I’ve got nothing to lose,’ he said in the video that was obtained by TMZ.
She warned him to be careful, saying she’d reported him to police.
He replied: ‘Bring the big boys, how f**king dare you.’
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SWAT teams had, by this point, gathered outside the home – which Vargas’s sources say they were monitoring.
They eventually got inside the house, whisked her out to safety and arrested him.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office says he previously punched her in the face.
Geraghty pleaded guilty to burglary in 2008 and being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2016.
Geraghty has now been charged with a range of offenses including extortion, assault with a firearm and making criminal threats – as well as two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Vargas is shown the day after the incident. She was in high spirits while she spoke with a male friend
Vargas was on the Real Housewives of Orange County for only one season last year
, and fired a gun into the ceiling while she hid in a closet.
Geraghty remains in custody awaiting his next court date. It’s unclear how the pair met.
Vargas only appeared on the Real Housewives of Orange County for one season.
During her brief appearance on the show, she was accused of lying about her finances and lifestyle by cast-mates.
She also claimed on the show to have been born into a cult, and said she was the victim of childhood sexual abuse.
After last week’s stand-off, Vargas was pictured outside the home laughing and joking with a male friend.
She was then seen the night after the incident, dining at upscale restaurant Nobu with her management team.
Her management company DWE posted a paparazzi photo of the outing on Instagram along with the caption: ‘It’s just a numbers game from here on out.’
