Caroline Manzo Testifies That Danielle Staub "Claimed To Be Hiding In A Tree"

Caroline Manzo has been dragged into the legal battle between Danielle Staub and her ex-husband Kevin Maher—the guy who wrote the now infamous Cop Without a Badge—being deposed on his behalf in his Federal defamation lawsuit against Staub.

In October 2009, Maher filed a $5 million lawsuit against Staub claiming she slandered and defamed him with stories about how he repeatedly beat and raped her and also killed her dog (sometimes saying that he hanged the dog, sometimes saying that he shot it), spreading the tales after his book Cop Without a Badge—that exposed her past as a drug addict, prostitute, and kidnapper—was brought to light on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Manzo was brought in to help Maher prove his allegations by relaying, under oath, what Staub had told her about her ex. In the deposition documents, obtained by Radar, Manzo said:

She depicted him as a monster. She depicted him as someone who would beat her daily, as someone that put her in the hospital due to the beatings, I want to say on more than one occasion. She told a story about being raped on broken glass. One incident, she said that he shot her dog. And then another incident she claimed that he hanged her dog. I’m confused as to whether this all was at the same moment of the rape on the glass with the dog, and inserted a pistol up her vagina and played like a Russian roulette.

She added:

She claimed to have been hiding in a tree at some point, afraid that when he came home he would find her and beat her. She claimed to be the victim of prostitution due to his demands, that he put her into that world, again depicting him as an absolute monster. And the only reason she stayed with him, because she feared for her life if she left.

Maher says that those tales are all lies. Staub denies making those allegations against him, and filed a motion to dismiss his lawsuit, arguing that there even if she did, there’s “no evidence” that she did and that he can’t legally prove it. But it seems that Staub didn’t know of Manzo’s deposition at the time. That motion is set to be heard on September 27.

Staub and Maher previously sat down for a nine-and-a-half hour mediation session regarding the case that resulted in basically nothing. In Manzo’s deposition, on July 22, she said that she was in the room—but “did not comment”—when Staub was describing her rape and beatings and dog-killing at the hands of Maher to Jacqueline Laurita, and joked, “I don’t want to talk about it for nine hours.” Ironically, less than two weeks later, Manzo spent 10 hours filming the explosive two-part Housewives reunion.

EXCLUSIVE: Real Housewife Of NJ Caroline Manzo Testifies Against Danielle Staub; Read The Deposition [Radar]
Danielle Staub — My Ex is a Total Scumbag [TMZ]
Danielle Staub to Ex: Shut Your Mouth! [E!]