The ex-husband of a woman who appeared in “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” was convicted of planning a "vicious" attack on the woman’s now-husband, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Thomas Manzo, 59, whose former wife Dina Manzo appeared in the Bravo reality television show, hired a mob soldier from the Lucchese Crime Family to carry out the 2015 attack on Dina Manzo's new boyfriend at the time, prosecutors said.
Payment for the attack was a free wedding reception at a business Manzo owned, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey said in a statement.
Manzo was convicted by a jury Tuesday of one count of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity, one count of conspiracy to commit a violent crime in aid of racketeering resulting in serious bodily injury, and one count of falsifying and concealing documents related to a federal investigation.
His attorney did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday night.
“Thomas Manzo hired a soldier in the Lucchese Crime Family to carry out a vicious assault on his ex-wife’s then-boyfriend, causing the victim to suffer significant injuries,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a statement.
Manzo was charged in 2020. The alleged mob soldier who carried out the attack, John Perna, pleaded guilty in December of that year and in 2021 was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.
Perna and another member of his crew attacked Dina Manzo's then-boyfriend outside a Passaic County strip mall on July 18, 2015, authorities have said. Dina and the boyfriend later married.
Perna was armed with a "slapjack" weapon in the attack on the man, officials said. The plan orchestrated by Manzo was to leave the victim with injuries that that would leave a permanent facial scar, prosecutors said in Perna's indictment.
As payment, Manzo held a free wedding reception for Perna at the restaurant that Manzo owned, according to prosecutors.
Manzo faces a maximum of 20 years each on two of the counts, and a maximum of three years in prison on the conspiracy count, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 15.
Dina Manzo appeared as a main cast member in “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” in seasons one and two, which ran in 2009 and 2010, and also in season six in 2014.
