A Garden State judge on Friday ordered the husband of a former star of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” released from jail pending his trial on allegations that he targeted his former wife and her new fiancé in a violent home-invasion robbery in 2017.
Monmouth County Judge Paul Escandon ordered Tom Manzo released from jail at the end of a marathon detention hearing Friday, roughly a week after his arrest on robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, criminal restraint and stalking charges.
Earlier in the hearing, Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlin Sidley painted Manzo as an obsessed ex-husband who has allegedly stalked his ex-wife, reality television star Dina Manzo, and repeatedly sought to injure her new beau, Dave Cantin.
Sidley alleged Tom Manzo and an accomplice, James Mainello, broke into the new couple’s duplex in Holmdel when they weren’t home in 2017 — and waited for them to return.
When the couple walked in, Manzo and Mainello attacked them, restraining them with zip ties, beating Cantin repeatedly with a baseball bat and stealing their new engagement rings, Sidley said.
“This is what happens when you f—k with a guy from Paterson,” one of the assailants said before they left, according to prosecutors.
In addition to the state charges, Manzo is charged in a federal case for allegedly hiring reputed Lucchese crime family associate John Perna to beat Cantin outside a strip mall in 2015.
In exchange for the beatdown, Perna allegedly got a discount for his wedding at the Brownstone, an event space Manzo co-owns with his brother in Paterson.
Manzo denies the charges in the federal case and plans to fight them at trial, his attorney, Amy Luria, said at Friday’s hearing.
His attorneys also raised questions about the strength of the prosecutors’ case against Manzo, saying there is little evidence linking him to the 2017 home invasion.
Luria called Manzo’s split from Dina “perfectly amicable” and said he had no history of violent behavior and any criminal convictions — despite the federal charges against him
Luria and her co-counsel, Michael Critchley, also highlighted a number of letters written on behalf of Manzo to vouch for his character, including by the bishop of Paterson, the vice president of the New Jersey Police Benevolent Association and Dina’s sister, Caroline.
Manzo will be freed on the restrictions already imposed on him by the federal court.