Vincent Pastore of “The Sopranos” fame settled a $5.5 million lawsuit accusing him of assaulting his ex-fiancee.
The settlement was announced Tuesday just before Pastore, 62, was to testify for the second day in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court in the assault trial filed by Lisa Regina, 47.
Lawyers for both sides said the terms of the settlement were confidential.
Pastore, who played gregarious, genial mob killer Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on the hit HBO series, said little as he left court.
“I think I just want to say, ‘Thank God it’s over,’ and leave,” the actor said. “How can anybody be happy about something like this?”
Regina, a writer, actress and acting coach, said she was “just glad there’s closure and I can move forward.”
She declined to disclose the settlement terms. “What I got, you can’t put a price on — peace and closure.”
In her 2006 lawsuit, Regina said that Pastore attacked her on April 2, 2005, after they began a car trip to New Jersey, punching her, grabbing her hair and forcing her head down on the car’s gear shift.
Pastore pleaded guilty later that year to attempted assault and was sentenced to 70 hours of community service and anger management therapy.
Pastore was the only witness to testify so far in the trial that began on Friday. He said he began fighting with Regina when she tried to call a former boyfriend, and wept when he concluded that she didn’t love him.
He said the couple yelled and cursed at each other in the car on a street in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood. When he got out to open the passenger-side door, Regina started yelling at onlookers, “Big Pussy’s beating me up! ‘Sopranos!’,” Pastore said.
Pastore said he yanked her out of his car and dumped her and her luggage on a street while she tore at his clothing, pulling down his pants. He denied hitting her, but said that he had pulled her hair.
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