The ex-husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dina Manzo is making a grand return to court as he faces renewed accusations for the same crime he allegedly committed years ago.
Tommy Manzo, 58, has once again been charged with racketeering, outlined in a three-count indictment filed last week in Newark federal court, just a month after a judge dismissed the last case made against him, alleging that prosecutors were taking too long to go to trial.
The latest charges against Tommy are alike to the previous ones, claiming he hired a mafia mercenary from the Lucchese crime family to beat up his ex-wife’s new boyfriend back in 2015.
This indictment is the latest chapter in a years-long drama that started when authorities first indicted Manza in 2020 for reportedly cutting a deal with mob affiliate John Perna to rough up David Cantin, Dina Manzo’s then-boyfriend.
In exchange for the deal with Perna, Tommy offered a significantly discounted wedding at his catering hall, The Brownstone in Paterson, New Jersey, as cited in the written allegations.
“Manzo was outraged that his former wife became romantically involved with another man,” prosecutors reported in court documents. “Rather than accept that, as law-abiding individuals do, Manzo wanted to extract physical revenge. Unwilling or incapable of doing so directly, he leveraged his catering hall.”
In July 2015, Perna and a man from his crew caught up with Cantin and assaulted him with a slapjack in the parking lot of a North Jersey strip mall, leaving him battered and scarred, according to court documents.
Perna, who is the son of former mob boss Ralph Perna, pleaded guilty to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity and was sentenced to nearly three years in prison. According to prison records, he was released last August.
During this time, Manzo remained free on bail as the case against him moved at a substantially slow pace.
However, despite the case made against him, federal judge Susan Wigenton dismissed the charges late last month, agreeing with both Manzo’s attorneys and federal prosecutors that the federal police had violated Manzo’s rights under the Speedy Trial Act.
Though she did this without prejudice, which has allowed prosecutors to quickly re-indict Manzo in connection to his alleged crimes and mob affiliations.
Currently, Manzo also has pending state charges in Monmouth County that allege he and another man broke into Dave and Dina’s home in Holmdel, New Jersey, in 2017, and beat them with bats before robbing them.
The next hearing in that case is scheduled for April 29, according to state prosecutors.
