| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 3, 2022 |
PRESS RELEASE Kimberly Edds Public Information Officer Office: 714-347-8405, Cell: 714-504-1917 |
SANTA ANA, Calif. – A third-striker from Los Angeles has been charged with multiple felonies for threatening to kill a reality television star from whom he had been extorting tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for not selling nude photographs of the woman to the media.
Ryan Matthew Geraghty, 33, of Los Angeles, has been charged with 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. 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 form offering him probation as a result of his violent record.
He faces a maximum sentence of 75 years and four months to life if convicted on all charges.
Geraghty already has two prior strikes under California’s Three Strikes Law. He is scheduled to be arraigned in CJ1 today.
Geraghty was arrested by the Newport Beach Police Department on Tuesday, February 1, 2022 after he went to the Newport Beach home of a woman with whom he had a romantic relationship. He was arrested after pointing a gun at the woman and threatening to kill her for refusing to give him any more money.
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. After the woman told Geraghty she would no longer be providing him any more money, Geraghty is accusing of punching the woman in the face. When she attempted to cut him off again, he pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her.
Geraghty is accused of forcing the woman to buy him a BMW, which she does.
On January 31, 2022 Geraghty is accused of shooting a gun into the ceiling during an argument while the victim hid in a closet.
On February 1, 2022, he is accused of calling the woman to tell him he is coming for her because she stole his car. He then came to her house with a gun, which he pointed in her face, threatening to kill her.
Newport Beach police arrested Geraghty when they heard a struggle over the phone while attempting to contact the victim.
“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.”
Deputy District Attorney Diana King of the Family Protection Unit is prosecuting this case.
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