NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Actor takes plea deal over prop pellet gun

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.

An actor who played a bit part in an independent gangster film and used a prop pellet gun without a New Jersey gun permit likely won’t have to serve a prison term.

Carlo Goias goes by the stage name Carlo Bellario. He was charged under the state’s strict gun statute, which requires permits for firearms including the airsoft gun he used while filming a car chase scene in “Vendetta Games.” Airsoft guns fire nonlethal plastic pellets.

The 48-year-old Toms River resident accepted a plea deal offer Wednesday calling for him to receive probation when he’s sentenced in October.

Bellario initially said he’d reject the deal as a matter of principle. He relented after his attorney told him he could face up to 30 years due to prior felony convictions prosecutors say include theft and burglary.

Jerry Seinfeld’s ex is victim of burglary

NEW YORK

Police say thieves broke into the New York City home of the fashion designer, who gained fame when she dated comic Jerry Seinfeld, and stole $1.5 million worth of jewelry.

Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss tells the New York Post she is heartbroken and feels “beyond violated” by the burglary.

The 41-year-old Gruss discovered the break-in Tuesday when she returned to her Manhattan home from a weekend at the beach.

She says she lost “lots of sentimental stuff that can’t be replaced.”

Gruss and Seinfeld were involved in a four-year relationship that started in 1993 when she was 17 and he was 38.

Gruss went on to a career as a designer of swimsuits and dresses.

She married Round Hill Music CEO Joshua Gruss in 2003. They divorced in 2014.

Cosby files latest bid to question accuser

NORRISTOWN, Pa.

Bill Cosby is again fighting for the chance to question his accuser in court before his sexual-assault case goes to trial near Philadelphia.

Cosby’s lawyers have filed their latest appeal on the issue of whether accuser Andrea Constand must testify at a preliminary hearing.

The current case law in Pennsylvania lets prosecutors use police statements to spare victims the ordeal of repeated court testimony.

But the state Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider the issue. Cosby’s lawyers say Constand should testify in case the law is reversed.

A Montgomery County judge already has upheld the charges and ordered the 79-year-old Cosby to stand trial.

He remains free on $1 million bail.

Cosby insists his sexual encounter with Constand in 2004 was consensual. She says she was drugged and assaulted.

Associated Press