Denise Richards is ‘grateful to be safe’ following road rage incident in LA where her vehicle was shot at
Updated 22.00
A woman from New Jersey was so grateful to be alive after being shot at and nearly hit by a car in Los Angeles last month that she will not go to trial and is pleading guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter in order to get her car back.
As part of a plea deal agreed upon by prosecutors and Denise Richards is pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Monday (9March17), the 32 year old will accept a sentence of 15 years in prison, which is 10 years less than the 10 year maximum offered by prosecutors.
Denise Richards, who was in Los Angeles for a concert, was driving home from the gig in Hollywood when she took out her phone and called 911 to report a threatening phone call.
The car she was driving was travelling west on the San Diego Freeway. The driver reportedly heard the screeching of tires, but could not see who it was and assumed the car was a taxi or even one of the many other vehicles passing in the fast lane during rush hour.
By the time she realized there was someone else in the lane she was heading towards, there was very little distance between the two cars when the driver of the car she was in realized that Denise was in his lane.
He pulled back into the fast lane and tried to pass her so as to kill two birds with one stone. But while he had a clear shot at the car in front of him, he could not get past it by slowing down. In fact, he did the complete opposite and speed up – so much so that when he made it through the back end of the fleeing car he crashed into it causing it to explode.
He then got out and ran away.
Denise Richards later told police that she “felt fortunate that she did not die” and had a “deep and sincere gratitude to be alive.”
The woman explained that she was in her 30s when the incident happened and that she is currently recovering from a broken hip from a bike crash a year ago. She is also recovering from her other recent injury which was a “minor knee contusion” from a car accident in 2006.
All the while she was at it, she was trying to call 911 to report the threat.
The police report shows