Former Sopranos actor to plead guilty to attempted assault
Vincent Pastore, who played gangster Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on The Sopranos television series, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge that he attempted to assault a former girlfriend last spring.
The plea bargain, which has yet to receive final approval from a judge, calls for Pastore, 58, to perform 10 days of community service and attend a counselling programme for batterers, lawyers involved in the case told a judge today.
Leaving a Manhattan courthouse after the brief hearing, Pastore said he was satisfied with the deal.
“I want this to go away. What do you think, I want to die of a heart attack?” he said, adding that he is still recovering from an emergency triple bypass heart surgery performed about two months ago.
“I can’t do nude scenes now because of the scar,” he said.
Pastore was originally charged with two counts of assault, attempted assault and harassment for allegedly attacking Lisa Regina, 44, in April.
Prosecutors alleged that he punched her in the back of the head, grabbed her hair, and forced her head down on a car’s gear stick during an argument.
The actor has remained free on bail while the case is pending on the condition that he refrain from contacting Regina in any way.
If convicted, he could have been sentenced to as much as a year in jail.
Pastore’s Sopranos character was killed early in the series as payback for snitching on the mob.
