Ex-boyfriend of RHOC alum Elizabeth Lyn Vargas gets six years in prison for holding her hostage and threatening to kill her in sickening video after he blackmailed her over nudes — as she posts: ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’
The ex-boyfriend of a reality TV star who appeared on 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 Elizabeth Lyn Vargas’ Newport Beach home.
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 shot into the ceiling during a fight. The police were called for a welfare check and a standoff ensued.
Geraghty, who had prior convictions for burglary and gun possession, was sentenced to six years in prison
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 racketeering; assault with a firearm; criminal threats; bodily harm in the possession of a firearm by a felon of a spouse or cohabitant and gross negligence in the firing of a firearm, deadline reported.
He was also charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Geraghty pleaded guilty on Tuesday and was immediately sentenced.
Vargas posted on Instagram after the hearing, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Vargas appeared in only one season – Season 15, which ran from October 2020 to January 2021.
In the show, she described her dark past growing up in a cult run by her grandmother.
Before the series began, she was married to Bernt O. Bodal, CEO of American Seafoods.
Security camera footage from her home shows the moment Geraghty threatened to kill her, just before a SWAT team arrived at the house.
Ryan Geraghty is seen in Orange County court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Lyn Vargas
SWAT teams moved into the star’s Newport Beach home in February after Geraghty stormed the property with a gun
Vargas appeared in one season of Real Housewives of Orange County, from October 2020 to January 2021
Footage captured by a Ring camera shows him pacing through her house with a gun in hand, threatening to “take her out” and then kill others.
“I’ll take you out, and then everyone else. They can shoot me if they want. I don’t give a fuck anymore, I have nothing to lose,” he said in the video obtained by TMZ.
She warned him to be careful and said she had reported him to the police.
He replied, “Bring the big boys, how the hell do you dare.”
SWAT teams had gathered outside the house at the time — which Vargas’s sources say they were monitoring.
They eventually entered the house, took her to safety and arrested him.
The Orange County District Attorney says he punched her in the face before.
Geraghty pleaded guilty to burglary in 2008 and felony possession of a firearm in 2016.