Former Playboy Playmate Pleads No Contest To Shooting Husband And Attempted Manslaughter
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Victoria Rathgeb, 1968 Playboy Playmate of the Year, pleaded no contest in court Wednesday to a charge of attempted manslaughter in the shooting last October of her husband in their Hollywood apartment.
Rathgeb, who went by the modeling name Angela Dorian, was immediately sentenced to nine years in state prison by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson.
The former Playmate, now 66, admitted to using a firearm and causing great bodily harm to her husband, Bruce, who has since recovered, according to the D.A.'s office.
She was also ordered to pay $70,000 to California's victim restitution fund.
Rathgeb was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charge was lessened after she copped her please.
The couple had been married 25 years.
He testified at a preliminary hearing that his wife accused him of being unfaithful. He said while waiting at the apartment's elevator door, he noticed his wife out of the corner of his eye, about eight feet away.
He said, "Quickly she just aimed and fired at me." He smelled the gunpowder and felt a stinging on the left side of his body.
Mr. Rathgeb said he woke up in the hospital "in terrible pain."
He also testified that "they tried to take the bullet out. I guess it was too close to the heart so they left it in." He says he cannot move the fingers on his left hand.
In addition to her Playboy pictorial, Mrs. Rathgeb appeared in more than 30 television series and films in the 60s and 70s including the movie "Rosemary's Baby," and TV programs including "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," "Bonanza," "Perry Mason" and "Star Trek."
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
