Danielle Staub: The Real Story Behind The Real Housewife

Well, well, well. She may have thrown Cop Without A Badge on the table on the “Last Supper” episode of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” and said that there were only two things true in the book—that she’d changed her name and that she’d been arrested. But it looks like Danielle Staub is a liar, liar, pants on fire. The Smoking Gun has done an extensive investigation and recovered the actual court documents from her 1986 proceedings. They are saying that everything in Cop Without A Badge is true, plus some. After the jump, the details of Danielle’s actual wrongdoings.

• She Changed Her Name—More Than Once: Danielle was born Beverly Ann Merrill, but she’s also gone by the alias Angela Minelli. Sometime between then and now, she made the transition to Danielle Staub. I’ll be referring to her by all three names for the rest of the post, just for kicks.
• She Was a Prostitute: Under the name Angela, Beverly/Angela/Danielle did work for an escort service. Her prostitution involvement was verified by FBI agent Robert Favie, who checked into her background. “I know that she has told me that she has worked for an escort service, yes,” he said in court.
• She Did Deliver Drugs: Beverly/Angela/Danielle met her drug cohort, David Aguilar, while working for the escort service. For one deal, she took a kilo of cocaine from an apartment where she worked for a Colombian drug family to an apartment owned by a man named Carmen Centolella for testing. At Centolella’s apartment, four armed men stole the kilo of cocaine from her. The botched drug deal cost Beverly/Angela/Danielle and David $24,000.
• She Was Involved In A Kidnapping: Beverly/Angela/Danielle and David kidnapped Centollela and held him captive for ransom from his father. In the court proceedings, prosecutors alleged that Beverly/Angela/Danielle was the one to place the first ransom call to Centolella’s father.
• She Was Caught With A Whole Lot Of Cocaine: After the ransom calls, Centolella’s father contacted the FBI, which resulted in a raid. Beverly/Angela/Danielle was busted, alone, in an apartment containing 6 kilos of cocaine and $16,000 in cash.
• She Backstabbed Her Partner: After being caught, Beverly signed a plea deal to cooperate fully with authorities and sold out David. She was sentenced to five years of probation for extortion and cocaine possession. This was much less than David’s 15 years, thanks to the plea agreement. He was only recently released from prison.
• She Had A Drug Problem Herself: In addition, Beverly/Angela/Danielle was sentenced to attend a drug treatment program. According to a drug abuse counselor, she needed it “considering the severity of Beverly’s/Danielle’s drug history and her former drug life style.”

So that’s the deal. Here’s the part we don’t get? If this was your past—why, oh why, go on a reality TV show? And will all of this come out during part two of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion on Thursday?